Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Award- Winning Rabies Drug


In South Africa, scientists have received an award for their rabies research that could potentially lead to a safer, cheaper, more effective treatment for the infection. The typical treatment involves cleaning the wound and using antibodies, which are sometimes infected with harmful pathogens such as hepatitis. The new treatment would be created by genetically modifying tobacco leaves to create antibodies. Tobacco is an inexpensive crop and does not have the risks that human or equine antibodies sometimes do. The resulting vaccine would be very cheap and easily accessible, resulting in a very effective treatment for an infection that kills around 50,000 people each year.
Source: SciDev.net