Lyssaviruses and the Fatal Encephalitic Disease Rabies

Abstract

Lyssaviruses cause the disease rabies, which is a fatal encephalitic disease resulting in approximately 59,000 human deaths annually. The prototype species, rabies lyssavirus, is the most prevalent of all lyssaviruses and poses the greatest public health threat. In Africa, six confirmed and one putative species of lyssavirus have been identified. Rabies lyssavirus remains endemic throughout mainland Africa, where the domestic dog is the primary reservoir – resulting in the highest per capita death rate from rabies globally. Rabies is typically transmitted through the injection of virus-laden saliva through a bite or scratch from an infected animal. Due to the inhibition of specific immune responses by multifunctional viral proteins, the virus usually replicates at low levels in the muscle tissue and subsequently enters the peripheral nervous system at the neuromuscular junction. Pathogenic rabies lyssavirus strains inhibit innate immune signaling and induce cellular apoptosis as the virus progresses to the central nervous system and brain using viral protein facilitated retrograde axonal transport. Rabies manifests in two different forms - the encephalitic and the paralytic form - with differing clinical manifestations and survival times. Disease symptoms are thought to be due mitochondrial dysfunction, rather than neuronal apoptosis. While much is known about rabies, there remain many gaps in knowledge about the neuropathology of the disease. It should be emphasized however, that rabies is vaccine preventable and dog-mediated human rabies has been eliminated in various countries. The global elimination of dog-mediated human rabies in the foreseeable future is therefore an entirely feasible goal.

Sheep scrapie and deer rabies in England prior to 1800

“…Based on clinical signs and case history, Cope and a veterinary inspector, Lupton began to suspect rabies. Rabies is an encephalitic disease caused by the neurotropic viruses of the Lyssavirus genus which is most commonly transmitted through saliva from bites by infected animals [ 65 , 66 ]. Symptomatic animals typically present with one of two forms – aggressive (furious) or dumb (paralytic) rabies [ 65–67 ].…”

Nuevos desafíos en el desarrollo de vacuna antirrábica

“…La enfermedad se describe como una encefalitis viral que puede afectar a cualquier vertebrado homeotermo, implicando que prácticamente todos los mamíferos son susceptibles al virus de la rabia (5), siendo el perro el principal reservorio sobre todo en los países en desarrollo. En algunas regiones, donde la rabia en perros se ha controlado con campañas de vacunación, los quirópteros son los principales responsables de la conservación y transmisión del virus de la rabia (6).…”

“…El virión se compone de una nucleocápside de 5 genes monocistrónicos que sintetizan las proteínas virales N, M, P, G y una ARN polimerasa. Esas 4 proteínas virales, cumplen un rol estructural en conjunto al sintetizar desde nucleoproteínas (N); que encapsulan el ARN viral, fosfoproteínas (P); la proteína que genera la matriz del virión (M), la proteína G; que sintetiza las glicoproteínas anteriormente mencionadas y una ARN polimerasa dependiente de ARN que transcribe estás 4 últimas proteínas virales (1,5). La gp-G del virus rábico es una proteína expuesta que se encuentra anclada en la envoltura lipídica siendo el mayor determinante patogénico, pero también es el principal antígeno responsable de la inducción de la inmunidad protectora (6,14).…”

Zoonotic Infection with Rabies Virus Leading to Fatal Encephalitis in Pediatric Patient – Case Report

“…Rabies is a zoonotic disease determined by a single-stranded RNA virus, which belongs to the Lyssavirus genus, Order Mononegavirales, Rhabdoviridae family, that kills every year approximately 59000 people worldwide [1][2][3][4]. PEP is necessary to be started as early as possible and this estimates to prevent hundreds of thousands of rabies deaths annually [5].…”

“…MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products referred to in the content. and when it meets the surfaces of the human mucosa [1,4,12]. The rabies virus usually penetrates the body through the wound produced by the bite of an infected animal (its saliva containing the virus) and by way of fillets, reaches the brain, triggering characteristic lesions.…”