CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Rabies is a serious disease which causes a fatal form of encephalomyelitis in humans and animals when treatment is not administered. The incidence of human rabies can be reduced controlling canine rabies, through vaccination programs and sacrificing stray dogs. In Argentina, vaccination campaigns use vaccines produced in the brain of suckling mice. Production of this vaccine involves handling live virus and is expensive. In addition, it has been discouraged by the World Health Organization. Rabies is a worldwide disease which mainly affects developing countries. Thus, an efficient and affordable solution is needed. In this context, the production of the most immunogenic proteins of rabies virus (the glycoprotein and the nucleoprotein) was studied in bacteria and yeasts, as an alternative to the current vaccine production method. These expression systems were selected due to the technical advantages they have: easy handling, high levels of protein expression and simplicity to scale. Results show that the recombinant rabies proteins were expressed and purified easily, and can be used as a safe source of antigen in the production of a subunit vaccine, for the prevention of the disease. The immunogenicity of the recombinant proteins was assessed by potency assay of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but protection was not achieved in mices. However, the recombinant proteins were able to produce specific antibodies against the native proteins of the virus, although in a lower titer than necessary to generate protection against a viral challenge. These results are encouraging for the future, because through new studies, by increasing antigen concentrations or with the use of other adjuvants, it would be possible to reach specific titers of antibodies against rabies capable of producing protection against a viral challenge.