• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
virology blog

virology blog

About viruses and viral disease

neurotropic

TWiV 690: This is your brain on SARS-CoV-2

6 December 2020 by Vincent Racaniello

TWiV reviews the difficulties in predicting species susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection by only examining the ACE2 protein, and the olfactory mucosa as a portal of entry into the central nervous system in COVID-19 patients.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 690 (71 MB .mp3, 120 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiV!

Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Filed Under: This Week in Virology Tagged With: ACE2, central nervous system, coronavirus, COVID-19, mink, neurotropic, olfactory mucosa, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, species specificity, spike glycoprotein, viral, virology, virus, viruses

TWiV 572: Your EV-D68th nervous breakdown

3 November 2019 by Vincent Racaniello

Amy joins the TWiV team to review evidence that enterovirus D68 is an etiologic agent of childhood paralysis, and her finding that the ability of the virus to infect cells of the nervous system is not a recently acquired property.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 572 (73 MB .mp3, 121 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiV!

Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Filed Under: This Week in Virology Tagged With: acute flaccid myelitis, AFM, astrocytes, cerebrospinal fluid, CSF, enterovirus D68, neurons, neurotropic, poliovirus, serology, viral, virology, virus, viruses

TWiV 527: City mouse, country mouse

30 December 2018 by Vincent Racaniello

The TWiV team summarizes the discovery of Sin Nombre virus, and presents evidence that neurotropic flaviviruses can cause intestinal dysmotility syndromes after systemic infection of mice.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 527 (53 MB .mp3, 87 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiV!

Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Filed Under: This Week in Virology Tagged With: deer mouse, enteric nervous system, flavivirus, hantavirus, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, IBS, inflammatory bowel syndrome, intestinal dysmotility syndrome, neurotropic, outbreak, Peromyscus maniculatus, sin nombre virus, viral, virology, virus, viruses, West Nile virus, zoonosis

Viral infections of the enteric nervous system and intestinal dysmotility

27 December 2018 by Vincent Racaniello

Zika virusIntestinal dysmotility disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome affect 10-30% of humans in Western countries. Some of these diseases appear to correlate with viral infection. Inoculation of mice with neurotropic flaviviruses leads to injury and death of enteric neurons, inflammation, intestinal dilation and retarded bowel transit, providing a model for studying and treating these human intestinal disorders. [Read more…] about Viral infections of the enteric nervous system and intestinal dysmotility

Filed Under: Basic virology, Information Tagged With: bowel motility, enteric nervous system, enteric neurons, flavivirus, inflammatory bowel syndrome, intestinal dysmotility disorder, neurotropic, viral, virology, virus, viruses, West Nile virus, zika virus

TWiV 453: Neurovirology with Diane Griffin

6 August 2017 by Vincent Racaniello

From the Vector-Borne Viruses Symposium in Hamilton, Montana, Dickson and Vincent speak with Diane Griffin about her career and her work on understanding viral infections of the central nervous system.

 

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 453 (39 MB .mp3, 64 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiV!

Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Filed Under: This Week in Virology Tagged With: age dependent disease, antibody mediated clearance, apoptosis, Bcl-2, central nervous system, Diane Griffin, neurotropic, neurovirology, persistence, Sindbis virus, viral, virology, virus, viruses

Zika virus infection of the nervous system

10 March 2016 by Vincent Racaniello

FlavivirusEvidence is mounting that Zika virus is neurotropic (able to infect cells of the nervous system) and neurovirulent (causes disease of the nervous system) in humans.

The most recent evidence comes from a case report of an 81 year old French man who developed meninogoencephalitis 10 days after returning from a 4 week cruise to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and New Zealand (meningoencephalitis is infection of the meninges - the membranes that cover the brain - and the brain). His symptoms included fever, coma, paralysis, and a transient rash. A PCR test revealed Zika virus genomes in the cerebrospinal fluid, and infectious virus was recovered after applying the CSF to Vero cells in culture.

A second case report concerns a 15 year old girl in Guadeloupe who developed left hemiparesis (weakness of one side of the body), left arm pain, frontal headache, and acute lower back pain. After admission she developed dysuria (difficulty urinating) that required catheterization. PCR revealed the presence of Zika virus genomes in her serum, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid; other bacterial and viral infections were ruled out.

Until very recently Zika virus was believed to cause a benign infection comprising rash, fever, joint pain, red eyes, and headache. There is now strong evidence that the virus can cause congential birth defects, and growing evidence that the virus is neurotropic and neurovirulent. Previously the entire Zika virus genome was recovered from brain tissue of an aborted fetus.

Zika virus is classified in the family Flaviviridae, and other members are known to be neurotropic, including West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, and tick-borne encephalitis virus. West Nile virus infection may lead to acute flaccid paralysis, meningitis, encephalitis, and ocular manifestations. Examination of additional cases of Zika virus infection will be needed to document the full spectrum of illness caused by this virus.

Update: Neurotropism of Zika virus is also indicated by the findings that the virus infects human cortical neural progenitors.

Filed Under: Basic virology, Information Tagged With: central nervous system, flavivirus, meningoencephalitis, myelitis, neurotropic, neurotropism, neurovirulent, paralysis, viral, virology, virus, viruses, West Nile virus, Zika, zika virus

Primary Sidebar

by Vincent Racaniello

Earth’s virology Professor
Questions? virology@virology.ws

With David Tuller and
Gertrud U. Rey

Follow

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram
Get updates by RSS or Email

Contents

Table of Contents
ME/CFS
Inside a BSL-4
The Wall of Polio
Microbe Art
Interviews With Virologists

Earth’s Virology Course

Virology Live
Columbia U
Virologia en Español
Virology 101
Influenza 101

Podcasts

This Week in Virology
This Week in Microbiology
This Week in Parasitism
This Week in Evolution
Immune
This Week in Neuroscience
All at MicrobeTV

Useful Resources

Lecturio Online Courses
HealthMap
Polio eradication
Promed-Mail
Small Things Considered
ViralZone
Virus Particle Explorer
The Living River
Parasites Without Borders

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.