The Salk Institute for Biological Studies

W Maxwell Cowan

Stephen Fox Heinemann

James Warner Patrick

Barbara D Boss

A sequence in the coat glycoprotein of rabies virus is identified as the molecular basis for an essential step in the pathogenesis of the virus, the binding of virus to acetylcholine receptor at neuromuscular junctions prior to virus uptake into peripheral nerves. Based on this discovery, synthetic peptide-based, anti-rabies vaccines are prepared. The active ingredient of such vaccines is a synthetic protein, which is a conjugate with an immunogenic carrier protein of a synthetic peptide with a sequence which includes a sequence which is substantially the same as a substantial portion of the sequence of the acetylcholine receptor-binding segment of the rabies virus coat protein. Anti-rabies antisera, and anti-rabies antibodies, are prepared by injecting a mammal with a synthetic protein of the invention in a manner that induces an immune response in the mammal against the synthetic protein. Hybridomas which secrete anti-rabies antibodies, which bind to specific epitopes on or near the acetylcholine receptor binding segment on the rabies virus coat glycoprotein, are prepared with B cells immunized in vitro with a synthetic peptide or synthetic protein of the invention or taken from a mammal inoculated with such a peptide or protein. The anti-rabies vaccines of the invention avoid risks associated with currently available anti-rabies vaccines. The antisera and antibodies of the invention are useful therapeutically to induce passive anti-rabies immunity in a mammal that has been exposed to rabies virus. The antisera and antibodies are also useful for diagnosing whether a mammal is rabid and whether a mammal has been exposed to live rabies virus.

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Cardiff by the Sea, CA, United States of America

W Maxwell Cowan