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Borna disease virus (BDV)-induced model of autism: application to vaccine safety test design

Molecular Psychiatry volume 7, pages S36–S37 (2002)Cite this article

Viruses kill cells in the central nervous system (CNS) by direct (eg apoptosis), and indirect (eg immune mediated) mechanisms. Viruses also can persistently infect cells and disrupt specialized neural cell activities important for the organism without killing the infected neural cell. The immature nervous system is at high risk for virus-induced damage by all the above mechanisms. Not surprisingly, therefore, viruses are CNS teratogens and have been proposed as etiologic agents of neurodevelopmental disease syndromes in humans (eg intrauterine infection with rubella virus and autism).

BDV infection of neonatal rats provides an animal model system to study virus-induced injury to the immature CNS.1 BDV is an extremely neurotropic virus that causes persistent and non-lethal infection of neural cells. Lewis rats infected with BDV at birth survive because they fail to develop classical anti-virus cellular immune response to virus replication in the brain. The outcomes of neonatal BDV infection include neuroanatomical defects in the cerebellum and limbic system, behavioral abnormalities (eg hyperreactivity, circadian rhythm disturbance, social-play deficits, cognitive deficits, chronic anxiety) and neurochemical defects (eg developmental and regional abnormalities in serotonin and norepinephrine concentrations).1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Psychiatry, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    K M Carbone, S A Rubin & M Pletnikov

  2. Dept of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    K M Carbone

  3. Laboratory of Pediatric and Respiratory Viral Diseases, Rockville, MD, USA

    K M Carbone & M Pletnikov

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  1. K M Carbone
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  2. S A Rubin
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  3. M Pletnikov
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Correspondence to K M Carbone.

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Carbone, K., Rubin, S. & Pletnikov, M. Borna disease virus (BDV)-induced model of autism: application to vaccine safety test design. Mol Psychiatry 7 (Suppl 2), S36–S37 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001174

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