Page 473 - AWSAR 2.0

diseases among humans and an important threat to public health. It is often considered as a disease associated with poverty, ignorance and, in some circumstances, misinformation. Hence, the priority of reducing the burden of human rabies is first controlling dog- transmitted rabies, especially in free-roaming stray dogs.
Till now, little is known about viral pathogenesis that occurs by its entry into the host body through dog bite; the journey begins by initial replication in the striated muscle cells. Then, it proceeds towards the CNS, where the brain is most affected due to its extensive replication. From the brain, further movement occurs; affecting the eye, salivary gland and skin, and infected saliva serves as the hub of viruses. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the mechanism behind this pathogenesis. This virus remains within the host body for 20–90 days without showing any symptoms; once
symptoms appear, death
occurs within 2–7 days. Its long-
term hidden existence and a
sudden increase in dreadful
incurable symptoms leave
many questions unanswered.
Overall, most cases remain
undiagnosed with clinical signs
until the disease reaches the
advanced stage. Limited clinical
diagnostic methods, each with
certain limitations, unclear view
of disease progression and
improper therapeutic aspects
are definitely the results of
initiatives taken so far to counter
this disease, but somehow
they cannot be conclusive. Thus, molecular mechanisms involved in rabies pathogenesis are not well understood and need more detailed studies.
How interesting it is to investigate an
Ms. Suchismita Behera || 449
issue within factors giving rise to it. Dogs, the major reservoir hosts, always remain at risk of becoming a storehouse of rabies virus. Instead of looking deep within, all-time strict advice to the community is ‘Beware of Dogs’. We, the building blocks of the new era of science, have taken a challenge to resolve the mystery behind the untold story. Infected and symptomatic dogs carry plenty of viruses in the brain and saliva, indicating that they are very close to death. Before they bite and spread the disease, three dedicated social personalities take care of it. Municipality people capture them, and after their natural death, hand over them to veterinarians who dissect the brain, collect tissue samples and pass them on to researchers for further investigation. In a similar manner, brain tissue samples of dogs dying naturally without any symptoms serve as noninfected samples for comparison with infected ones.
Proteins are vital parts of all living organisms, and proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Differential protein expression defines proteins as those expressed differently, either high or low, when something unusual happens within the body. This study utilized a proteomic approach playing an important role in detecting host proteome alterations during rabies. That’s how the file of an ancient disease gets reopened to focus at an advanced level: at the protein level. A total of 59 host proteins were differentially expressed,
of which 23 showed high expression and 36 showed low expression, regarded as up- and downregulated, respectively.
To generate an overview of functional classification,theseproteinswerecategorized
Rabies is an infectious disease caused by a virus named rabies virus. It is neurotropic in nature as it attacks and affects the nervous system, particularly central nervous system (CNS). This bullet-shaped virus has a broad range of hosts, including bat, dog, skunk, raccoon and fox, but dogs and bats act as major reservoir hosts.