Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Journal of Virology, February 2000, p. 1775-1780, Vol. 74, No. 4
Institut für Virologie und
Immunbiologie, Universität Würzburg, D-97078
Würzburg,1 Pathologisches
Institut, Universität Würzburg, D-97080
Würzburg,2 Abt. für
Neuropathologie, Universitätsklinikum Benjamin Franklin,
D-12200 Berlin,3 and Robert
Koch-Institut, D-13353 Berlin,4 Germany
Received 10 August 1999/Accepted 13 November 1999
A pathogenetic hallmark of retroviral neurodegeneration is the
affinity of neurovirulent retroviruses for microglia cells, while
degenerating neurons are excluded from retroviral infections. Microglia
isolated ex vivo from rats peripherally infected with a neurovirulent
retrovirus released abundant mature type C virions; however,
infectivity associated with microglia was very low. In microglia, viral
transcription was unaffected but envelope proteins were insufficiently
cleaved into mature viral proteins and were not detected on the
microglia cell surface. These microglia-specific defects in envelope
protein translocation and processing not only may have prevented
formation of infectious virus particles but also may have caused
further cellular defects in microglia with the consequence of indirect
neuronal damage. It is conceivable that similar events play a role in
neuro-AIDS.
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Abundant Defective Viral Particles Budding from
Microglia in the Course of Retroviral Spongiform
Encephalopathy


*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut
für Virologie und Immunbiologie, Universität
Würzburg, Versbacherstr. 7, D-97078 Würzburg, Germany.
Phone: 49-931-201 3441. Fax: 49-931-201 3934. E-mail:
czub{at}vim.uni-wuerzburg.de.
Present address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology,
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0414.
Present address: Charles-River, D-88353 Kisslegg, Germany.
This article has been cited by other articles:
| J. Bacteriol. | Mol. Cell. Biol. | Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. |
|---|
| Clin. Vaccine Immunol. | ALL ASM JOURNALS |
|---|