To cure rabies remains a global problem. And once being infected, the mortality rate will be close to 100%. Among all infectious diseases the number of people who die from rabies ranks the fourth every year. 

Recently, the international journal Genome Biology online published an article by a rabies research team from Huazhong Agricultural University. This article indicates that a further breakthrough has been made in the research on the new pathogenesis of rabies virus. On Sept. 12, Prof. Zhao Ling, the corresponding author, told the journalist from Science and Technology Daily that their team had eventually found a pivotal switch to the virus.
“Five years has been spent on this research without an interruption. Through high throughput screening and big data analysis we take the lead in spotting the target”, Zhao said. The target represents not only a key protein（EZH2）in epigenetics but also a switch to the downstream gene-expression. Turning it off will increase the downstream gene-expression, so the rabies virus will be suppressed.
It is well-known that the rabies virus mainly damages the central nervous system; but it is still unclear to understand its nosogenesis due to slow fundamental research on such virus. Thus, we are still facing enormous challenges in effective prevention and control, and clinical treatment of these viral diseases.
“Taking rabies as a model, we can decode pathogenic mechanisms of more neurotropic viruses.” Zhao added. The research has provided a different direction for future drug research. Besides, it has spotted the key switch to inhibit the virus. At the same time specific site to control this switch has been found. Therefore, it conduces to the future development of antiviral and anti-tumor drugs.

Source：http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2020/9/445956.shtm
Article: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02150-9
Translated by: He Tongtong & Cheng Yixuan
Proofread by: Guo Haiyan