Neuronal death and inflammatory response in situ in central nervous system of patients with rabies transmitted by bats

• Grant number: 08/03786-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Irma Seixas Duarte
• Grantee: Maria Irma Seixas Duarte
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Rabies is a central nervous system (CNS) disease that is almost invariably fatal and is the tenth most common lethal infectious disease causing approximately 60,000 annual deaths worldwide. However, rabies remains a neglected disease in most countries, mainly in developing countries. The causative agent is a nonsegmented negative-stranded RNA virus of the Rhabdoviridae family and genus Lyssavirus. Rabies virus is usually transmitted by attack of an infected carnivore vertebrate, which bites introduce virus containing saliva to muscle. Recently, rabies outbreaks in which humans were bitten by the bat have increased in Brazil, most cases presenting as paralytic rabies. Our aim is to study immune response of host front the rabies infection by immunohistochemistry in CNS and to try obtain rabies RNA extracted of paraffin-embedded brain tisues. We will study paraffin blocks from 8 cases of rabies human and to select six brain regions following as frontal cortex, parietal cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia, cerebellum and bulb of each case. This casuistic will be composed of recent outbreak of vampire bat-transmitted human rabies that occurred in the State of Pará, Brazil. Quantitative study will be performed in immunohistochemistry slides by 400x light microscopy observation with a 0.0625 sq/mm grid ocular. Statistical analysis was performed by Graph Pad Prism version 4.0 for Windows (Graph Pad software, San Diego, CA, USA) (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FERNANDES, ELAINE RANIERO; DE ANDRADE, JR., HEITOR FRANCO; PENTEADO LANCELLOTTI, CARMEN LUCIA; SIMOES QUARESMA, JUAREZ ANTONIO; DEMACHKI, SAMIA; DA COSTA VASCONCELOS, PEDRO FERNANDO; SEIXAS DUARTE, MARIA IRMA. In situ apoptosis of adaptive immune cells and the cellular escape of rabies virus in CNS from patients with human rabies transmitted by Desmodus rotundus. VIRUS RESEARCH, v. 156, n. 1-2, p. 121-126, MAR 2011. (08/03786-7)