Development and production of rabies virus-specific monoclonal antibodies and evaluation of their neutralizing and protective potentials

Soliman, Rafik; Hashem, Zeinb; Abo-Elyazeed, Heidy; Aboul Ella, Hassan

doi:10.21608/mid.2024.259100.1738

Development and production of rabies virus-specific monoclonal antibodies and evaluation of their neutralizing and protective potentials

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

² VACSERA holding Company for vaccine and serum production, Ministry of Health, Egypt.

10.21608/mid.2024.259100.1738

Abstract

Background: Rabies is a severe viral infection that causes acute encephalomyelitis and has a case fatality rate of almost 100%. There is no cure for symptomatic rabies, but post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which comprises vaccines and anti-rabies immunoglobulins (RIGs), can successfully prevent the development of irreversible clinical symptoms. In a situation with low resources, the primary PEP protocol confronts significant access and implementation challenges that could be successfully overcome using RIGs instead of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The current study focuses on the important characteristics of mAbs against rabies that are currently under development and emphasizes their potential as a cutting-edge therapeutic strategy. Methods: BALB/c mice were vaccinated using immunizing Freund's adjuvanted emulsions of the inactivated purified Vero cell rabies vaccine (PVRV, VERORAB) made by Aventis Pasteur. The created hybrids were subjected to an ELISA 12 days after fusion to check for the presence of antibodies specific to the rabies virus. Results and conclusion: There are 4 adequately formed murine hybridomas that secrete mAbs that are specific to the rabies virus. These 4 stable hybrids, designated 1E4, 1E9, 2F3, and 4E1, were successfully cloned into four stable clones. The specificity of the generated hybrids was validated using the western blot. The effectiveness of the mAbs cocktail made from the 4 hybridomas was assessed along with the neutralizing capacity of the generated mAbs. Mice challenged with 1000 LD50 of the rabies virus strain were completely protected by the mAbs cocktail given to them 24 hours after infection, while all control mice contracted the disease.

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