[A new principle in the selection of vaccinal rabies virus based on quantitation of the expression of G protein, a major immunogen of rabies virus].

The paper describes a new principle of the selection of the rabies virus vaccine strain ERA-CB20M based on quantitation of the expression of glycoprotein, a major immunogen of rabies virus. There is a correlation between the level of glycoprotein expression and that of vaccine virus attenuation. The application of the new principle for vaccine virus selection will permit a safer and more immunogenic rabies vaccine to be prepared.

A study of candidate rabies vaccines for a national reference preparation for the evaluation of antigenic potency.

An unconcentrated and a concentrated lot of rabies vaccine prepared in Syrian hamster kidney cell culture from the Vnukovo-32 strain have been examined for their suitability as national reference preparations for rabies vaccine. The antigenic potencies of the preparations were assessed by the NIH test using both fixed and street strains of rabies virus and by the method of antibody induction. The candidate vaccines were calibrated in comparative assays with the WHO 3rd International Reference Preparation of Rabies Vaccine (IRP3). The correlation between the level of virus-neutralizing antibody and the resistance of mice to intracerebral challenge with a fixed rabies virus strain was studied. The candidate vaccines were also examined by the thermal degradation test. It was found that both vaccines had appropriate antigenic potency and thermostability to be used as a national reference preparation of rabies vaccine.

[Treatment with inactivated cultured antirabies vaccine and antirabies gamma-globulin of persons biten by rabid wolves or those suspected of being rabid]. / Lechenie inaktivirovannoi kul'tural'noi antirabicheskoi vaktsinoi i antirabichesmim gamma-globulinom liudei, ukushennykh beshenymi ili podozritel'nymi na beshenstvo volkami.

The authors present the results of using inactivated cultural rabies vaccine from the Vnukovo-32 strain in combination with rabies gamma-globulin for the treatment of 39 persons; of this number 28 were bitten by rabid wolves (the diagnosis was confirmed by laboratory methods), 25 had wounds of dangerous localization, and 3 were children from 7 to 15 years of age. In examining the sera of all the 39 bitten persons it was found that the scheme of combined vaccinations with inactivated cultural ribies vaccine and rabies gamma-globulin, officially acting in the USSR, in case of bites of dangerous localization led to formation of early continuous and lengthy passive and active immunity of adequate intensity.

Treatment of patients bitten by rabid or suspected rabid wolves with inactivated tissue culture rabies vaccine and rabies gammaglobulin.

During 1972-1976 46 persons in 9 foci were bitten by wolves. 39 of them were immunized with antirabies gammaglobulin and tissue culture rabies vaccine; 7 received culture vaccine only. Rabies in wolves was confirmed clinically or in the laboratory in 8 foci. Bites of dangerous localization: face, head or fingers of the hands, predominantly multiple, were noted in 25 humans; 5 of them were young, 7 to 16 years old. Antirabies gammaglobulin was given to 9 people, predominantly in the dose of 0,5 ml per kg of weight, once on the 1st day after exposure (381-538 IU per kg of weight) to 14 people, once on the 2nd day (706-773 IU) to 3 people, twice on the 2nd and 3rd to 3 people, once on the 3rd and 5th day to 10 people, twice on the 2nd and 3rd day or on the 5th day after exposure. Vaccination course was started 24 hours after administration of gammaglobulin and predominantly in the dose of 5 ml; it lasted for 25 days and was followed by 3 booster injections on the 10th, 20th and 30th day. Titres of virus neutralizing antibody were tested in dynamics in 39 people immunized with gammaglobulin and tissue culture vaccine. Antirabies gammaglobulin induced some inhibitory effect, but 2-3 booster injections of the tissue culture rabies vaccine completely compensated this effect. During the observation period of 10 months to 5 years all the exposed people remained healthy.

[Antigenic activity of a concentrated and purified cultured antirabies vaccine from the Vnukovo-32-107 strain]. / Antigennaia aktivnost' kontsentrirovanno i ochishchennoi kul'tural'noi antirabicheskoi vaktsiny iz shtamma Vnukovo-32-107.

Humoral response (virus-neutralizing antibody production) to immunization with inactivated 30-fold concentrated and purified tissue culture rabies vaccine was studied in monkeys and human volunteers. Two doses of the preparation spaced 20 days apart and given intramuscularly or intradermally to monkeys induced in them much more intensive antibody production (4--213-fold by titer) than 6 daily injections of unconcentrated vaccine. In 10 human volunteers immunized with 1.5 ml doses of the concentrated vaccine intramuscularly twice 20 days apart antibody titers 40 days after immunization varied from 1:79 to 1:6250 (average 1:1067). In another group of 10 human volunteers immunized intramuscularly with the concentrated vaccine 3 times at 0, 1st and 20th day, antibody titers 40 days after immunization were 1:112--1:3273 (average 1:508). These values are significantly higher than the average titers in humans vaccinated with unconcentrated tissue culture of brain vaccine of Fermi type. The concentrated vaccine proved to be a preparation of low reactogenicity: no systemic reactions were observed among vaccinated volunteers; 4 out of 20 volunteers had a mild, transient (1 day) local reaction (hyperemia of less than 1.5 cm in diameter).