Reportedly, every year over 59,000 people worldwide die due to rabies and there is no cheap and easy vaccine treatment to avoid the disease in humans. Currently, scientists reported that adding a particular immune molecule into a rabies vaccine can improve its efficacy. The past studies have indicated that the current rabies vaccine—which is expensive and complex to administer—functions by triggering the immune system’s B cells. Nevertheless, it takes time for the vaccine—which comprises of inactivated virus particles—to cooperate with the B cells. The research was published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
James McGettigan—from TJU (Thomas Jefferson University)—along with colleagues aimed a signaling protein called BAFF (B cell-activating factor), which connects directly to B cells. They developed a rabies vaccine including an attenuated rabies virus and BAFF on same particle, expecting to aim the vaccine openly to B cells for establishment. Then they tested the new vaccine in mice. Mice immunized by the novel BAFF-enhanced rabies vaccine reported a stronger and faster retort of the immune system in comparison to animals that established the typical vaccine. The levels of virus-neutralizing antibodies surged very quickly and to higher levels, nonetheless the time of the reaction was not impacted. Extra studies on the wellbeing of the vaccine are required prior to testing it in humans.
On a similar note, researchers cracked rabies virus weaponry. Recently, researchers discovered a course to avert the rabies virus turning off the body’s immune defense against it. They solved an important scientific puzzle and have paved the way for the progress of new anti-rabies vaccines. Every year, rabies kills at least 60,000 people and most of them are from developing nations, overpoweringly through dog bites. Dr. Greg Moseley—from Monash University’s BDI (Biomedicine Discovery Institute)—led the study and the findings were published in the journal Cell Reports. Dr. Moseley said, “For a long time, it is been known that several viruses aim the human protein STAT1 and associated proteins to turn off the host’s immune defenses, and it is also presupposed that this is very significant for diseases.”
