title: Potential role of viruses in neurodegeneration.
abstract: Viruses have the capacity to induce alterations and degenerations of neurons by different direct and indirect mechanisms. In the review, we have focused on some examples that may provide new avenues for treatment or altering the course of infections, i.e., antibodies to fusogenic virus membrane proteins, drugs that interfere with lipid metabolism, calcium channel blockers, immunoregulatory molecules, and, and inhibitors of excitotoxic amino acids. Owing to their selectivity in attack on regions of nervous tissue, governed by viral factors and by routes of invasion, viral receptors or metabolic machineries of infected cells, certain viral infections show similarities in distribution of their resulting lesions in the nervous system to that of the common human neurodegenerative diseases (namely, motor neurons disease, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease). However, it should be emphasized that no infectious agent has as yet provided a complete animal model for any of these diseases, nor has any infectious agent been linked to them from observations on clinical or postmortem materials.
authors.affiliation: Division of Basic Research in Dementia, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kristensson
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000201:enzymology; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D007181:Inclusion Bodies, Viral; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000378:metabolism; D016472:Motor Neuron Disease / Q000382:microbiology; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000382:microbiology; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000382:microbiology; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000378:metabolism; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000382:microbiology; D012154:Reticular Formation / Q000382:microbiology; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000382:microbiology; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000150:complications*
chemical_list: D008563:Membrane Lipids; D009498:Neurotoxins; D002118:Calcium