The aim of this study was to gain more detailed insights into the genetic evolution and variability of Borna disease virus (BDV). Phylogenetic analyses were performed on field viruses originating from naturally infected animals, the BDV vaccine strain 'Dessau', four widely used laboratory strains and the novel BDV subtype No/98. Four regions of the BDV genome were analysed: the complete p40, p1...

The inducible transcription factor NF-kappaB is commonly activated upon RNA virus infection and is a key player in the induction and regulation of the innate immune response. Borna disease virus (BDV) is a neurotropic negative-strand RNA virus, which replicates in the nucleus of the infected cell and causes a persistent infection that can lead to severe neurological disorders. To investigate th...

Border disease virus (BDV) affects a wide range of ruminants worldwide, mainly domestic sheep and goat. Since 2001 several outbreaks of disease associated to BDV infection have been described in Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica) in Spain, France and Andorra. In order to reconstruct the most probable places of origin and pathways of dispersion of BDV among Pyrenean chamois, a phyl...

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a nonsegmented, negative-strand RNA virus that replicates and transcribes in the nucleus of infected cells. Recently, we have demonstrated that BDV phosphoprotein (P) can modulate its subcellular localization through binding to the protein X, which is encoded in the overlapping open reading frame (T. Kobayashi et al., J. Virol. 77:8099-8107, 2003). This observation ...

Genome and antigenome synthesis of negative-strand RNA viruses is initiated at promoters located in inverted terminal repeats (ITR). The ITR of Borna disease virus (BDV), a persisting neurotropic virus with a nuclear replication phase, are exceptional in that they appear to be noncomplete. Our analysis showed that the vast majority of genomic and antigenomic RNA molecules of BDV lack four 5'-te...

Borna disease virus (BDV) infection produces a variety of clinical diseases, from behavioral illnesses to classical fatal encephalitis (i.e., Borna disease [BD]). Since the genomes of most BDV isolates differ by less than 5%, host factors are believed responsible for much of the reported variability in disease expression. The contribution of BDV genomic differences to variation in BD expression...

The highly neurotropic Borna Disease Virus (BDV), which belongs to the Mononegavirales order--Bornaviridae family--is generally detected using the RT-nested-PCR. If false positive results (often caused by laboratory contaminations) can be avoided, some false negative results which are mostly due to inhibitory effects of some reaction components and/or to sample preparation errors, can occur. Th...

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a nonsegmented negative-strand RNA virus that replicates and transcribes its genome in the nucleus of infected cells. BDV proteins involved in replication and transcription must pass through the nuclear envelope to associate with the genomic viral RNA. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (L) of BDV is postulated to be the catalytic enzyme of replication and transcripti...