Abstract:
Rabies encephalitis is a fatal infectious disease that is often neglected. The pathogenesis of encephalitic (furious) and paralytic (dumb) rabies, the two distinct clinical subtypes of rabies in dogs and humans, is not fully understood. Earlier studies in human at the late stage of disease or at postmortem did not show differences between the two forms. In contrast, recent studies at the early stage of rabies infection in dogs have demonstrated differences in terms of neuroimaging (more disturbance in dumb rabies), inflammatory response (more pronounced in dumb rabies), and viral burden (more virus in furious dogs). These findings imply that differences between the furious and paralytic rabies are present only at the early stage of infection. Apoptosis plays an important role as a defensive mechanism in eliminating virus-infected cells. While attenuated strains of rabies virus induce apoptosis of neurons, the wild-type (virulent) virus produces apoptosis of inflammatory cells. Most of the studies were, however, performed at the terminal stage of infection. The current study was aimed to determine whether there are differences in the pattern of apoptosis between furious and dumb rabies at the early stage of disease. 17 rabid dogs were studied, including the early stage of furious (N=5) and dumb (N=6) rabies, and the terminal stage of rabies (3 of each clinical forms). For all cases, apoptosis was evaluated by TUNEL technique on the frontal lobe, hippocampus, brainstem, and spinal cord. TUNEL-positive neurons and inflammatory cells were detected at the brainstem (most prominent) and spinal cord, and they were found exclusively at the early stage of infection. These TUNEL-positive cells were more abundant in the dumb as compared to furious rabies. Neuronal apoptosis does occur in natural rabies infection but it is observed only at the early stage of disease. Prominent apoptosis of neurons in the brainstem level at the early stage of paralytic rabies might impede viral propagation into the brain and explains the longer survival time in paralytic as compared to furious rabies.