Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is highly effective in preventing disease progression of rabies when used in timely and appropriate manner. The key treatment for PEP is infiltration of rabies immune globulin (RIG) into lesion site after bite exposure, besides wound care and vaccination. Unfortunately, however, RIG is expensive and its supply is limited. Currently, several anti-rabies virus monoclonal antibody (mAb) products are under development as alternatives to RIG, and two recently received regulatory approval in India. In this study, fully human mAbs that recognize different rabies virus glycoprotein conformational antigenic site (II and III) were created from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of heathy vaccinated subjects. These mAbs neutralized a diverse range of lyssavirus types. As at least two anti-rabies virus mAbs are recommended for use in human PEP to ensure broad coverage against diverse lyssaviruses and to minimize possible escape variants, two most potent mAbs, NP-19-9 and 11B6, were selected to be used as cocktail treatment. These two mAbs were broadly reactive to different types of lyssaviruses isolates, and were shown to have no interference with each other. These results suggest that NP-19-9 and 11B6 are potent candidates to be used for PEP, suggesting further studies involving clinical studies in human.

Current post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies virus infection has several limitations in terms of supply, cost, safety, and efficacy. Attempts to replace human or equine rabies immune globulins (HRIG or ERIG) have been made by several companies and institutes. We developed potent monoclonal antibodies to neutralize a broad spectrum of rabies viruses by screening hybridomas received from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Two kinds of chimeric human antibodies (chimeric #7 and #17) were constructed by cloning the variable regions from selected hybridomas and the constant region of a human antibody. Two antibodies were bound to antigenic site III and I/IV, respectively, and were able to neutralize 51 field isolates of rabies virus that were isolated at different times and places such as Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Australia. These two antibodies neutralize rabies viruses with high efficacy in an in vivo test using Syrian hamster and mouse models and show low risk for adverse immunogenicity.

Little is known about the relationship between body composition and metabolic risk factors in young adults. We hypothesized that low muscle mass (LMM) is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in young adults and that the associations vary by obesity. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. In total, 5300 young adults aged 19 to 39 years were evaluated. Low muscle mass was defined as an appendicular skeletal muscle mass/weight less than 1 SD below the mean for each participant's corresponding sex and age group. Obesity was defined as a body mass index greater than or equal to 25 kg/m2. The prevalence of LMM was higher in obese than nonobese participants (37.6% vs 9.6%). In the nonobese participants, the prevalence of MetS, high waist circumference, high triglycerides, and high blood pressure was significantly greater in the LMM group than in the high muscle mass group. In the nonobese group, compared with high muscle mass participants, those with LMM had odds ratios for MetS of 3.6 (95% confidence interval, 1.48-8.76; P < .001) and 3.6 (95% confidence interval, 1.48-8.71; P < .001) in men and women, respectively, after adjusting for confounding factors. However, no significant association of LMM with MetS or its components was found in obese participants. In conclusion, our results suggest that young adults with LMM may have a high risk of MetS, especially when they are nonobese. Interventions aimed at increasing muscle mass at younger ages may have the potential to reduce MetS.

We used epidemiological data and indirect fluorescent antibody tests to determine the Hantaan virus (HTNV) antibody-positive (Ab+) prevalence in small mammals captured at firing point 10 (FP-10) and firing point 60 (FP-60), Gyeonggi Province, near the demilitarized zone, Republic of Korea (ROK), from 2001 to 2005. We used these data, combined with the partial M segment amplified from HTNV recovered from lung tissues of Apodemus agrarius, to clarify the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among HTNV strains in the ROK. Of the eight species of rodents and one insectivore species captured, A. agrarius accounted for 93.4% and 88.5% at FP-10 and FP-60, respectively. Only two species of rodents, A. agrarius and Micromys minutus, were HTNV Ab+. The overall HTNV Ab+ prevalence for A. agrarius captured at FP-10 and FP-60 was 23.3% (121/520) and 14.5% (94/647), respectively. The hantaviral reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-positive rate of Ab+ A. agrarius was 74.2% (167/215), and the phylogenetic trees, based on the 269-nucleotide G2-encoding M segment, demonstrated that HTNV strains from FP-10 and FP-60 were distantly segregated from HTNV of other geographic regions in Korea and China. These data are useful in the development of risk reduction strategies for the prevention of hantavirus infections among military personnel, especially during training or the event of hostilities, and civilian populations.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The International Labour Office (ILO) system for classifying chest radiographic changes related to inhalation of pathogenic dusts is predicated on film-screen radiography. Digital radiography has replaced film in many centers. Digital images can be printed on film ("hard copy") or can be viewed at a computer workstation ("soft copy"). The goal of the present investigation was to compare the inter-reader and intra-reader agreement of ILO classifications for pneumoconiosis across image formats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Traditional film radiographs, hard copy digital images, and soft copy digital images from 107 subjects were read by six B readers. A multiple reader version of the inter-reader kappa statistic was compared across image formats. Intra-reader kappa comparisons were carried out using an iterative least-squares approach (unadjusted analysis) as well as a two-stage regression model adjusting for readers and subject-level covariates. RESULTS: There were few significant differences in the inter-reader and intra-reader agreement across formats. For parenchymal abnormalities, inter-reader and intra-reader kappa values ranged from 0.536 to 0.646, and 0.65 to 0.77, respectively. In the covariate-adjusted analysis film-screen radiography was generally associated with a numerically greater reliability (ie, higher kappa values) than the other image formats, although differences were rarely statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Film-screen radiographs, hard copy digital images, and soft copy digital images yielded similar reliability measures. These findings provide further support to the recommendation that soft copy digital images can be used for the recognition and classification of dust-related parenchymal abnormalities using the ILO system.