Borna disease virus: nature of the etiologic agent and significance of infection in man

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Abstract
Summary This review presents data on the characterization of Borna disease virus (BDV) and its potential as a possible causative agent in humans. The isolation of (i) BDV-specific cDNA clones that encode various BDV-specific proteins and (ii) partially purified virus particles led to the conclusion that the viral genome consists of negative-sense, single-stranded RNA. The organization of the BDV-specific RNA species appears to be a nested set of overlapping subgenomic RNA transcripts. Furthermore, evidence is presented that BDV can infect humans and may cause certain psychiatric and neurological disorders. This concept is supported by (i) the finding of virus-specific antibodies in sera of patients with neuropsychiatric diseases and (ii) results obtained during attempts to isolate BDV or a BDV-related agent from the cerebrospinal fluid of seropositive patients. Keywords cDNA Clone Tree Shrew Seropositive Patient Purify Virus Particle Inapparent Infection These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.