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Treatment for Rabies could soon be within reach

New Delhi, Dec 28 (India Science Wire): Transmitted from animals to
human, Rabies kills an estimated 20,000 Indians annually. In a
development that promises to help in better handling of the dreaded
disease, a team of scientists from three institutes – DBT-Institute of Life
Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai Veterinary College, and Haffkine
Institute, Mumbai, has found out how the disease-causing virus affects
the brain of the host at the molecular level.
The new study assumes importance as even though vaccines are
available to prevent the disease, it is almost untreatable. After entering
into the body, the virus remains dormant for periods ranging from 20
days to even 90 days without showing any clinical symptom and when
symptoms do emerge there is not much time available to offer any
effective treatment. Death occurs within two to seven days. Fatality is
thus almost 100 percent. The currently used diagnostic procedures are
all based on invasive techniques and are not very sensitive. The new
study promises to help address these problems.
The research team led by Dr. Amol Ratnakar Suryawanshi, head of the
Clinical Proteomics and Proteoinformatics group at DBT-Institute of Life
Sciences has used a recently developed advanced quantitative
proteomics approach to identify proteins in the dog brain that may be
involved in rabies infection. They studied the dog brain since more than
99% of human rabies cases occur due to transmission through a dog
bite.
They found 19 proteins that may have a role in the infection. Out of
these, 9 showed lower expression and 10 higher expression in the brain
of dogs infected with Rabies compared to control samples.
Speaking to India Science Wire, Dr. Suryawanshi, said, “The study has
provided a list of molecules that may be involved in rabies virus infection
and has given some insight into the molecular pathophysiology involved
in this infection. It was helpful to understand more about molecules
involved in rabies virus infection and also an aid in designing strategies
to combat this viral infection in both humans and animals. However,

further experiments are needed to investigate the role of the various
identified proteins in the molecular mechanism of the Rabies virus
infection. The experiments are underway”.
The study team included Suchismita Behera, R. Rajendra Reddy,
Rajesh Raghunath Pharande Sharmila B. Majee and Sandeepan
Mukherjee. They have published a research paper on their work in
Springer’s journal of Proteins and Proteomics. (India Science Wire)
keywords: virus, disease, brain, molecular, vaccine, symptom, treatment,
death, fatality, diagnostic, sensitive, proteomics, infection,
pathophysiology, DBT-Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai
Veterinary College, Haffkine Institute,

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