Co-administration of anti-rabies Rab-E8/H7 and virus directly in the brain efficiently inhibits virus infection.

<p>Mice were inoculated intracerebrally with a mix of rabies virus and 0.12 µg (1 IU) anti-rabies Rab-E8/H7 (A) or irrelevant VHH (B) and euthanized 7 days later. The anti-rabies VHH-treated mice were protected from disease, whereas all the mock-treated mice developed severe nervous disease. The pictures represent an immunofluorescence staining for viral nucleocapsid in the brain tissue. No viral antigens were visible in the brain of anti-rabies VHH-treated mice (A), whereas green fluorescent spots indicate the abundant spread of virus in the brain of mock-treated mice (B). The graph (C) presents the viral RNA load in the brains of different groups. Viral loads were significantly different between groups treated with Rab-E8/H7 and irrelevant control VHH, between Rab-E8/H7 and uninfected controls and between irrelevant control VHH and uninfected controls (*** p<0.01).