Abstract
Arboviruses are important pathogens for both animals and humans. Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus (VEEV) is an arbovirus whose pathogenicity for grey matter structures has been previously studied. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to describe extensive inflammation and demyelination in spinal cord white matter of mice infected with VEEV. To probe a possible immunepathogenesis of white matter alterations in this infection, nude mice and heterozygous controls were similarly infected. Whereas controls still showed inflammatory demyelination, nude mice showed no white matter changes in the absence of a mononuclear inflammatory response. These results suggest that white matter changes in VEEV infection are dependent upon the host immune-response, rather than produced by primary viral cytolytic activity. Such findings are similar to those we and others obtained in a number of different viral infections and support the possibility that the host immune response may be the common denominator leading to myelin injury in a variety of viral diseases. The hypothesis of "by-stander killing" of myelin is discussed as a possible host-mediated mechanism of demyelination in viral infections.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 397-418 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Journal of the Neurological Sciences |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1981 |
Funding
This work was supported by a grant from the Kroc Foundation and by grants NS-13011 and NS-13045 from the National Institute of Health. Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Mauro C. Dal Canto, M.D., Department of Pathology (Neuropathology), Northwestern University Medical School, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago. lL 60611. U.S.A.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neurology
- Clinical Neurology