Exogenous interferon prolongs survival of rabies infected mice

Rabies is an acute viral infection that causes encephalomyelitis in almost all warm blooded animals and is invariably fatal once the clinical signs appear. The present study was carried out to assess the effect of recombinant human interferon alpha (rhIFN α-2A) treatment on the survival of rabies infected mice and its correlation with cytokines expression. The gene expression of TNF-α and IL-6 was measured by SYBR Green Real Time PCR for two groups—“Pre-exposure” (mice were inoculated with rhIFN α-2A prior to rabies infection) and “Post-exposure” (mice were inoculated with rhIFN α-2A post rabies virus infection). Delayed mortality was observed in interferon treated infected groups. In addition, statistically significant decrease (P < 0.0001) in the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 was observed, both in the pre-exposure and post-exposure groups. These findings indicate that modulation of cytokine secretion using exogenous biologicals such as rhIFN may offer novel therapeutic approaches to treat diseases such as rabies.