Antibodies’ response in MeV infected Rhesus Macaques with Remdesivir

Jala Wallace

Mentor: Dr. Nadine Peart, M.D.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Measles is an infectious viral disease causing fever and a red rash on the skin, typically occurring in childhood. Immunoglobulin, also known as an antibody, appears after the first few days of the infection of measles. A specific antibody that is responsible for creating a long-lasting immunity to a virus, is Immunoglobulin G, IgG. The force between the IgG antibodies and the proteins of measles, also known as avidity is important, because the stronger the avidity, the stronger your immune memory is, which can prevent you from having future infections. Remdesivir is an experimental antiviral medication that inhibits viral replication by interfering with RNA-dependent RNA polymerase function. Monkeys have a similar immune response as humans do to measles infection, and we currently have a treatment model of measles in monkeys to evaluate this. We believe that if we treat measles-infected monkeys soon after infection, there will be a decrease in the IgG antibodies in the monkeys treated with Remdesivir compared to those that are not. We believe this because previous research has shown the data of the presence of IgG after the measles infection, and so if Remdesivir will reduce the production of a virus, we believe there will be a decrease in the production of IgG antibodies and a reduced avidity between the antibody and MeV antigen. I have adapted an IgG ELISA protocol which will be used to determine the IgG response in monkeys that are infected with measles and treated or not treated with Remdesivir.