Role of Viruses in Chronic Neurological Diseases

Abstract

Viruses play unique roles in a variety of chronic neurological diseases. The prototype slow infections of sheep (scrapie and visna) and the five established slow infections of man [kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, and progressive rubella panencephalitis] all are manifest primarily as neurological diseases. In those due to the spongiform encephalopathy agents, scrapie, kuru, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, infectivity is found in many organs, but clinical and pathological abnormalities are confined to the CNS. In the slow infections associated with conventional viruses, infection may be generalized or limited to brain and spinal cord.