Present Trends and the Future in Rabies Research
The article is titled Present Trends and the Future in Rabies Research and was authored by Campbell, Kaplan, Koprowski, Kuwert, Sokol and Wiktor. Scientists have made notable advances in rabies research since the time of Pasteur by the use of up to date modern virological techniques. The article provides an accurate account of the present state of knowledge of the pathogenesis, cultivation, immunology, tissue culture, cell virus relationships and physiochemical properties of the virus. As of now, it is now possible to study and explore the biology of rabies and information obtained from this work on the problems should provide solutions and the most promising directions to future research.
It has reached a point in rabies research where it is critical to developing a balanced scorecard to show what is done and what needs to be covered. Rabies is transmitted usually with the bite of an infected animal. Alternatively, (Campbell) asserts that it can be transmitted through aerosols. However, this mode of spread is present only in a cave. This is why it is essential to study the spread of rabies by inhalation as well as the susceptibility of the lung tissue as a primary cite for entry, and the replication of the virus is made to species found in the wild as well as experimentation with laboratory species. Often rabies spreads from an infected site via the peripheral nerves to the CNS.
The paper also reveals that after the rabies virus has entered the Central Nervous System, is confirmed present in the grey matter and that the replication is exclusive to the neurons. It is only when laboratory cell fractionation of nerve tissue is possible that more will be availed about the puzzling phenomenon of selectivity. Additionally, little is known about the intracellular events post rabies infection in the CNS. There are possible abortive infections in experimentally infected animals, and recovery of these animals is associated with the appearance of antirabies immunoglobulins in the brain tissue.
Experts reveal that there is the possible existence of specific types of antigens for the different strains of rabies virus. As can be seen from the results obtained, people may look forward to the development of a vaccine which produces adequate responses to human subjects after 2 to 3 injections as opposed to traditional which takes up to 14 or 21 days. The presence of low amounts of neutralizing antibodies in the blood of primates is regarded as an index for protection against infection with the rabies virus. Findings from this research reveal that there are up to five different types of antibodies present illustrated by the presence of neutralizing, precipitating, cytolytic, haemagglutination-inhibiting in the serum injected to animals exposed to rabies antigen.
Infection with rabies follows a lethal path where animals suffer from death and general paralysis. But after intraplantar injection of the fixed virus by intercerebral inoculation by a HEP strain. Also, several attempts have been made to purify rabies using suspensions of infective brains. However, the methods proved only partially useful. The authors mention that degradation of the virus particles through the application of various strategies including, surface-active agents, lipid solvents, lipolytic enzymes, separation of the degradation products as well as determination of the physical, chemical and antigenic traits appears to be the most feasible approach when trying to solve this problem.