Overexpression of MAP2 and NF-H associated with dendritic pathology in the spinal cord of mice infected with rabies virus

Abstract

Rabies is a viral infection that targets the nervous system, specifically neurons. The clinical manifestations of the disease are dramatic and their outcome fatal; paradoxically, conventional histopathological descriptions reveal only subtle changes in the affected nervous tissue. Some researchers have considered that the pathophysiology of rabies is based more on biochemical changes than on structural alterations, as is the case with some psychiatric diseases. However, we believe that it has been necessary to resort to other methods that allow us to analyze the effect of the infection on neurons. The Golgi technique is the gold standard for studying the morphology of all the components of a neuron and the cytoskeletal proteins are the structural support of dendrites and axons. We have previously shown, in the mouse cerebral cortex and now with this work in spinal cord, that rabies virus generates remarkable alterations in the morphological pattern of the neurons and that this effect is associated with the increase in the expression of two cytoskeletal proteins (MAP2 and NF-H). It is necessary to deepen the investigation of the pathogenesis of rabies in order to find therapeutic alternatives to a disease to which the World Health Organization classifies as a neglected disease.