Saturday, September 19, 2009

New Rabies Vaccine May Require Only A Single Shot... Not 6 !

People were really scared about the number of injections (it used to varies from 12 to 6) rather than the real pain of the dog's bite. Now thanks to Dr. McGettigan according to the researchers, a replication-deficient rabies virus vaccine that lacks a key gene called the matrix (M) gene induced a rapid and efficient anti-rabies immune response in mice and non-human primates.

The M gene is one of the central genes of the rabies virus, and its absence inhibits the virus from completing its life cycle. The virus in the vaccine infects cells and induces an immune response, but the virus is deficient in spreading. The immune response induced with this process is so substantial that only one inoculation may be sufficient enough both pre-exposure and post-exposure settings. The details will be published in the forth coming journal of infectious disease (J Infect Dis.).

Congrats, Dr.McGettigan and co-workers.

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