A Rutgers Health–led study, published in BMJ Open Quality, examines potential challenges associated with online qualitative data collection and how to prevent possible fraudulent respondents.

Ebola (EBOV) and Marburg virus (MARV) are highly lethal viruses that cause severe disease in infected patients by extensively damaging the body. This includes the gastrointestinal tract. Severe diarrhea followed by dehydration is a major causes of death in EBOV and MARV disease patients, yet the role of the intestinal lining (epithelium) in these outcomes remain poorly understood.

A new study first-authored by Elizabeth Yvonne Flores, PhD, a recent graduate from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) and the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) of BU and Boston Medical Center, sheds light on the mechanisms behind this damage. The study found that both EBOV and MARV are capable of infecting and replicating within human gut epithelial cells and that the viruses interfere with the cells' ability to regulate fluid secretion, mirroring the severe symptoms observed in patients.