Single Dose Rabies Therapy

US military immunologists have developed a human monoclonal antibody that, given as a single shot, effectively fights a rabies virus even when it has taken hold in the central nervous system. Working in a mouse model, the researchers found that their novel antibody quickly triggers monocytes and T cells primed to kill rabies and a related Australian lyssavirus, thereby uniformly saving the infected animals. Currently, if you’re bitten by a wild animal assumed or proven to be rabid, you’ll need a shot of anti-rabies gamma globulin followed by up to 4 injections of rabies vaccine. Hopefully, this military rabies antibody will simplify such treatment….. someday soon.

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.202216394

#rabies #antibody #lyssavirus #vaccine