Infection of the central nervous system by Borna disease virus (BDV) provides a unique model to study the mechanisms whereby a persistent viral infection can impair neuronal function and cause behavioral diseases reminiscent of mood disorders, schizophrenia, or autism in humans. In the present work, we studied the effect of BDV infection on the response of hippocampal neurons, the main target f...

This paper describes a new type of metal-insulator-metal junction based on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). The junction consists of a drop of liquid mercury supporting a SAM, in contact with a flat metal surface (M′), also supporting a SAM: that is, a Hg-SAM/SAM-M′ junction. This junction is stable, easy to assemble, and reproducible: it can generate areas of contact down to 0.01 mm2 without ...

Borna disease virus (BDV) is one of the infectious agents that causes diseases of the central nervous system in a wide range of vertebrate species and, perhaps, in humans. The phosphoprotein (P) of BDV, an essential cofactor of virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, is required for virus replication. In this study, we identified the gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor-associated protein (GABARAP) wit...

We determined the complete nucleotide sequences of two poorly characterized strains of Borna disease virus (BDV) and compared them to reference strains V and He/80. Strain H1766 was almost 98% and 95% identical to strains V and He/80, respectively, whereas strain No/98 was only about 81% identical to both reference strains. In contrast to earlier reports, we found an additional A residue at the...

Bornavirus, a non-segmented, negative-strand RNA viruses, is currently classified into several genetically distinct genotypes, such as Borna disease virus (BDV) and avian bornaviruses (ABVs). Recent studies revealed that bornavirus genotypes show unique sequence variability in the putative 5' untranslated region (5' UTR) of X/P mRNA, a bicistronic mRNA for the X protein and phosphoprotein (P). ...

Understanding the pathogenesis of infection by neurotropic viruses represents a major challenge and may improve our knowledge of many human neurological diseases for which viruses are thought to play a role. Borna disease virus (BDV) represents an attractive model system to analyze the molecular mechanisms whereby a virus can persist in the central nervous system (CNS) and lead to altered brain...

Infection of newborn rats with Borna disease virus (BDV) leads to persistence in the absence of overt signs of inflammation. BDV persistence, however, causes cerebellar hypoplasia and hippocampal dentate gyrus neuronal cell loss, which are accompanied by diverse neurobehavioral abnormalities. Neurotrophins and their receptors play important roles in the differentiation and survival of hippocamp...

BACKGROUND In 2008, a program to eradicate bovine virus diarrhea (BVD) in cattle in Switzerland was initiated. After targeted elimination of persistently infected animals that represent the main virus reservoir, the absence of BVD is surveilled serologically since 2012. In view of steadily decreasing pestivirus seroprevalence in the cattle population, the susceptibility for (re-) infection by b...

In 1985, Rott and Koprowski reported that serum from patients with bipolar disorder reacted with cells infected with Borna disease virus (BDV)1,an unclassified infectious agent named after a town in Saxony (Eastern Germany) where an outbreak of equine encephalitis in the late 1800s crippled the Prussian cavalry2. Intrigued by the notion that an infectious agent might be implicated in human neur...

Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is the most commonly-used technique to identify gene expression profiles. The selection of stably expressed reference genes is a prerequisite to properly evaluating gene expression. Here, the suitability of commonly-used reference genes in normalizing RT-qPCR assays of mRNA expression in cultured rat cortical neuro...