Photothermal therapy can "burn" rabies viruses

Reporters recently learned from Huahua Agricultural University, the university's National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology Professor Zhao Ling team in cooperation with the university's School of Science Professor Han Heyou developed a new nanomaterial-based photothermal treatment method, and rabies mouse model has obtained good therapeutic results, for the clinical treatment of rabies virus and other neurovirus infection provides a new path.The team screened a suitable fit that specificly binds to rabies virus surface glycoproteins and combines them on the surface of a gold nano-bar that is similar in shape and size to rabies viruses. After intravenous injection, the golden nano-stick can effectively cross the mouse blood-brain barrier into the brain, and the target is combined with rabies virus-infected nerve cells. Using near-infrared light to irradiated the brains of mice, local high temperatures were generated on the surface of the golden nano-bar, which "burned" infected cells and eventually removed the virus from the brain.The researchers treated mice with photothermal therapy for five minutes on the third, sixth and ninth days after contracting the rabies virus. The results showed that 60 percent of the mice in the treatment group survived and returned to normal health levels after 21 days, while the untreated mice all died within 8 to 12 days of infection. In the mouse model, the photothermal therapy showed good therapeutic effect and provided a new idea for the follow-up clinical treatment of rabies. (Science and Technology Daily)