title: Pathogenicity of rabies viruses isolated in China: two fixed strains and a street strain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the virulence characteristics of two fixed strains (CTN and aG) and a street strain (HN10) of rabies viruses isolated in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  ICR mice of different age groups were inoculated with CTN, aG and HN10 rabies virus strains via the intracracerebral (i.c.) or intramuscular (i.m.) routes, and observed for 20 days.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CTN strain was pathogenic to 7-day-old suckling mice that received i.c. inoculations and 3-day-old suckling mice that received i.m. inoculations. The aG strain was pathogenic to 4-week-old mice that received i.c. inoculations and 7-day-old suckling mice that received i.m. inoculations. The HN10 strain was pathogenic to mice of all age groups via both inoculation routes. In moribund mice, the viruses had spread to most regions of the brain. The CTN and HN10 strains had similar dissemination patterns in the brain; both viral antigens could be found in the dentate gyrus (DG), whereas few viral antigens were present in the DG from specimens that had been infected with the aG strain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A comprehensive sequence analysis of the G protein suggested that differences in gene sequences may be responsible for producing strain-specific differences in pathogenicity and distribution in the brain.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratorg for Medical Virology, Ministry of Health, Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (IVDC, China CDC), Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rayner
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Guo Dong
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D002681:China; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D011818:Rabies / Q000821:virology*; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins
keywords: Distribution; Glycoprotein; Pathogenicity; Rabies Virus