Molecular characterization of Indian rabies virus isolates by partial sequencing of nucleoprotein (N) and phosphoprotein (P) genes

Abstract

Rabies is endemic and an important zoonosis in India. There are very few reports available on molecular epidemiology of rabies virus of Indian origin. In this study to know the dynamics of rabies virus, a total of 41 rabies positive brain samples from dogs, cats, domestic animals, wildlife, and humans from 11 states were subjected to RT-PCR amplification of N gene between nucleotide N521-N1262 (742 bp) and P gene between nucleotide P239-P750 (512 bp). The N gene could be amplified from 30, while P gene from 41 samples, using specific sets of primers. The N gene-based phylogenetic analysis indicated that all Indian virus isolates are genetically closely related with a single cluster under arctic/arctic-like viruses. However, two distinct clusters were realized in P gene-based phylogeny viz., Rabies virus isolates of Punjab and Rabies virus isolates of remaining parts of India (other than Punjab). All the Indian rabies virus isolates were closely related to geography (>95% homology), but not to host species.

Molecular and immunogenic characterization of BHK-21 cell line adapted CVS-11 strain of rabies virus and future prospect in vaccination strategy

“…Under Indian scenario, it is clear that the spatial spread of rabies viruses is limited by geographical boundaries or topographical barriers and not by political boundaries. Similar findings on grouping of viruses based on geography was previously reported for isolates from Indian sub-continent [20][21][22]28] and also other part of the world [11,13,19]. This finding indicates that rough idea for place of origin of rabies virus can be made using G gene based sequence analysis.…”

Comparative Assessment of Seller's Staining Test (SST), Direct Fluorescent Antibody Test and Real Time PCR for Diagnosis of Rabies in Dogs

“…In India, dogs play an important role as the reservoir and transmit rabies to humans and domestic animals in urban cycle, while jackals, wolves and foxes maintain the rabies virus in sylvatic cycle (Reddy et al, 2011). The need to establish a more reliable and accurate test for rabies diagnosis for proper decisions regarding the treatment of potentially exposed individuals cannot be over emphasized.…”

Diagnosis of animal rabies: comparison of direct fluorescent antibody test (DFAT), reverse transcriptase -PCR and real-time PCR

“…Although the loss of livestock due to rabies is significant, there are only few publications on estimates of the incidence of rabies in livestock (Knobel et al, 2005). In India, dogs play an important role as the reservoir and transmit rabies to humans and domestic animals in urban cycle, while jackals, wolves and foxes maintain the rabies virus in sylvatic cycle (Reddy et al, 2011). Monitoring and surveillance of any disease requires rapid diagnostic tests.…”

“…RT-PCR for detection of rabies virus targeting most conserved nucleoprotein gene specific two sets of primers (Table 1) designed based on sequences available from our previous study was carried out (Reddy et al, 2011). Briefly, 25 μl reaction mixture (2.5x master mix-10 μl, MgCl2,10 mM-1.0 μl, Primer Forward-0.5 μl, Primer Reverse-0.5 μl, Template cDNA-1 μl and Nuclease free water-12 μl) using 2.5x master mix (5 PRIME, USA) was prepared.…”