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Journal of Virology, August 2001, p. 7494-7505, Vol. 75, No. 16
Department of Neurology, University of Utah
School of Medicine,1 and Department of
Biochemistry, University of Utah,2 Salt Lake
City, Utah 84132
Received 5 February 2001/Accepted 2 May 2001
Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) is divided into
two subgroups based on neurovirulence. During the acute phase, DA virus
infects cells in the gray matter of the central nervous system (CNS).
Throughout the chronic phase, DA virus infects glial cells in the white
matter, causing demyelinating disease. Although GDVII virus also
infects neurons in the gray matter, infected mice developed a severe
polioencephalomyelitis, and no virus is detected in the white matter or
other areas in the CNS in rare survivors. Several sequence differences
between the two viruses are located in VP2 puff B and VP1 loop II,
which are located near each other, close to the proposed receptor
binding site. We constructed a DA virus mutant, DApBL2M, which has the
VP1 loop II of GDVII virus and a mutation at position 171 in VP2 puff
B. While DApBL2M virus replicated less efficiently than DA virus during
the acute phase, DApBL2M-induced acute polioencephalitis was comparable to that in DA virus infection. Interestingly, during the chronic phase,
DApBL2M caused prolonged gray matter disease in the brain without white
matter involvement in the spinal cord. This is opposite what is
observed during wild-type DA virus infection. Our study is the first to
demonstrate that conformational differences via interaction of VP2 puff
B and VP1 loop II between GDVII and DA viruses can play an important
role in making the transition of infection from the gray matter in the
brain to the spinal cord white matter during TMEV infection.
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.16.7494-7505.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Prolonged Gray Matter Disease without Demyelination
Caused by Theiler's Murine Encephalomyelitis Virus with a Mutation
in VP2 Puff B

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, 30 North 1900 East, Room 3R330, Salt Lake City, UT 84132. Phone: (801) 585-3305. Fax: (801)
585-3311. E-mail: Robert.Fujinami{at}hsc.utah.edu.
Present address: Department of Neurology, Nissan Tamagawa Hospital,
4-8-1 Seta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-0095, Japan.
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