title: Borna disease virus: nature of the etiologic agent and significance of infection in man.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Virologie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Richt
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Herzog
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pyper
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Clements
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Narayan
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bechter
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001890:Borna Disease / Q000382:microbiology*; D001891:Borna disease virus / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans