Scientists at Bethesda Medical University have successfully tested a monoclonal antibody to treat rabies in mice. The research was published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
The antibody was created using Australian bat lyssavirus, a close relative of the rabies virus. Once ingested, the antibody blocks the rabies virus and prevents it from entering cells.
Previous attempts to treat advanced rabies failed because drugs could not cross the blood-brain barrier, the boundary between the brain’s circulatory system and the rest of the body. The new drug also does not penetrate the nervous system but stimulates the immune system to produce immune cells that can cross the blood-brain barrier to destroy the rabies virus.
A single dose of antibody was effective in preventing death in the animals even after the virus reached the nervous system. Although the infection was not completely cleared in the brains of treated animals, signs of rabies disappeared and the virus remained at consistently low levels for at least four months after infection. The drug needs to be further developed and tested in humans, but the authors of the development are already calling it the first working treatment for rabies.
Rabies kills 60,000 people worldwide every year, mostly in developing countries, so clinical trials will need to be done there, for example in India. As the authors note, this country has a developed healthcare system, but it also has many cases of late-stage rabies. Vaccination is effective in the first days after a person is bitten by a rabid animal, and the sooner it is done, the greater the chance of success.
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