title: Isolation of virus from the spinal fluid of three patients with multiple sclerosis and one with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
abstract: A transmissible agent with the properties of a thermolabile filterable virus was isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 4 Houston patients with chronic central nervous system (CNS) disease. 3 had multiple sclerosis and I had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. No isolations were made from 27 patients whose CSF was taken for diagnosis of illness unrelated to degenerative CNS disease. Neutralising antibodies to the 4 isolates were present in the serum of each of the 4 patients with virus (14 positive results among 15 tests) but in hardly any of the sera from 8 patients without virus (3 antibody-positive results among 32 tests). The agent is antigenically related to the virus isolated in Japan from cases of subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D014776:Virus Cultivation / Q000379:methods; D014780:Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral