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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Paulo Eduardo Brandão

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Guest Editor

School of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-270, Brazil
Interests: rabies treatment; rabies pathogenesis; Lyssavirus rabies molecular biology; Virus-host coevolution

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rabies is a 100% lethal zoonotic encephalitis caused by species in the Lyssavirus, chiefly Lyssavirus rabies or Rabies virus (RABV), which leads to 55,000 human deaths each year; for rabies patients, who experience extensive suffering, no rational treatment is currently available. Any treatment must include the clearance of lyssavirus infection targeting either the virus itself or host factors, the recovery of the damaged neural tissues, and physiotherapy. Despite bold attempts to treat human patients with a combination of antivirals, this has resulted in few survivors, and although reports have shown that antivirals can impair RABV replication both in vitro and in vivo, the field of rabies treatment lags behind the progress for viral diseases mainly due to its neglect. Regardless of the efforts to control rabies in reservoirs and the availability of highly effective pre- and post-exposure immunoprophylaxis, developing a treatment for patients not reached by these preventive measures remains a duty for those in this field.

This Special Issue is designed to publicise in silico, in vitro, and in vivo experiments on antivirals against lyssaviruses, as well as results of clinical trials and innovative approaches to the prevention of rabies.

Prof. Dr. Paulo Eduardo Brandão
Guest Editor

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Keywords

rabies
antiviral
treatment
prevention

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review, Other

12 pages, 2187 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

A Robust Phenotypic High-Throughput Antiviral Assay for the Discovery of Rabies Virus Inhibitors

by Xinyu Wang, Winston Chiu, Hugo Klaassen, Arnaud Marchand, Patrick Chaltin, Johan Neyts and Dirk Jochmans

Viruses 2023, 15(12), 2292; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15122292 - 23 Nov 2023

Viewed by 1574

Abstract

Rabies virus (RABV) causes severe neurological symptoms in mammals. The disease is almost inevitably lethal as soon as clinical symptoms appear. The use of rabies immunoglobulins (RIG) and vaccination in post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can provide efficient protection, but many people do not receive this treatment due to its high cost and/or limited availability. Highly potent small molecule antivirals are urgently needed to treat patients once symptoms develop. In this paper, we report on the development of a high-throughput phenotypic antiviral screening assay based on the infection of BHK-21 cells with a fluorescent reporter virus and high content imaging readout. The assay was used to screen a repurposing library of 3681 drugs (all had been studied in phase 1 clinical trials). From this series, salinomycin was found to selectively inhibit viral replication by blocking infection at the entry stage. This shows that a high-throughput assay enables the screening of large compound libraries for the purposes of identifying inhibitors of RABV replication. These can then be optimized through medicinal chemistry efforts and further developed into urgently needed drugs for the treatment of symptomatic rabies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rabies Virus: Treatment and Prevention)

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Review

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0 pages, 664 KiB

Open AccessReview

Human Rabies Treatment—From Palliation to Promise

by Marian Lacy, Nonthapan Phasuk and Stephen J. Scholand

Viruses 2024, 16(1), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/v16010160 - 22 Jan 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2237 | Correction

Abstract

Rabies encephalitis has plagued humankind for thousands of years. In developed countries, access to preventive care, both pre-exposure and post-exposure, has significantly reduced the burden of suffering and disease. However, around the world, rabies remains a neglected tropical disease, largely due to uncontrolled dog rabies, and tens of thousands perish each year. Currently, the standard of care for management of rabies encephalitis is palliation. Heroic attempts to treat human rabies patients over the last few decades have yielded glimpses into our understanding of pathophysiology, opening the door to the development of new antiviral therapies and modalities of treatment. Researchers continue to investigate new compounds and approaches to therapy, yet there remain real challenges given the complexity of the disease. We explore and review some of the promising therapies on the horizon in pursuit of a salvage treatment for rabies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rabies Virus: Treatment and Prevention)

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