Effective protection of monkeys against death from street virus by post-exposure administration of tissue-culture rabies vaccine.
Three series of experiments on rabies vaccines were carried out on rhesus monkeys using suckling-mouse-brain vaccine, rabbit-brain vaccine, duck-embryo vaccine, and purified, concentrated tissue-culture vaccine. The latter was prepared in a human diploid cell strain and inactivated with beta-propiolactone, and consisted of tissue-culture fluid concentrated 200-fold with a final infectivity titre of 10(9.8) plaque-forming units per ml before inactivation. In the first two series of experiments, several vaccines were tested for relative immunogenicity on a pre-exposure basis. In the third series, a successful model was developed in which a single inoculation of the tissue-culture vaccine administered after exposure to rabies virus, with or without accompanying standard doses of antirabies serum, was evaluated as a method of prevention. A single dose of the tissue-culture vaccine protected 7 out of 8 monkeys from death by street virus. Homologous or heterologous antirabies serum alone gave poor results. The results indicate great promise for prophylaxis in man with one dose, or perhaps a few doses, of highly concentrated, purified tissue-culture vaccine.