NR AHVG
AU Manuelidis,L.; Murdoch,G.; Manuelidis,E.E.
TI Potential involvement of retroviral elements in human dementias
QU Ciba Foundation Symposium 1988; 135: 117-34
PT journal article; review; review, tutorial
AB Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a dementia of humans caused by a class of infectious agents with several biological properties similar to those of conventional viruses. The molecular nature of this group of agents is enigmatic, for neither an agent-specific nucleic acid nor a non-host protein has yet been identified. Recent transmissions of familial CJD dementias to rodents suggest that this class of agent can be integrated into the germline. Furthermore, tissue culture studies indicate that CJD causes transformation of cells in a manner reminiscent of slowly oncogenic retroviruses. Currently characterized retroviral-like elements include many forms that do not have 'typical' retroviral ultrastructural morphology; several forms are also known to be resistant to various types of standard physicochemical inactivation. We suggest that CJD agents are either constituted by retroviral-like nucleic acids or interact with endogenous retroviral sequences to elicit a slowly progressive disease of the central nervous system. Several overlapping properties between infectious CJD and 'non-infectious' dementias, such as Alzheimer's disease, implicate potential common pathogenic mechanisms.
ZR 35
MH Alzheimer Disease/pathology; Animal; Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome/genetics/transmission; Dementia/*etiology/genetics; Human; Models, Genetic; Retroviridae/genetics/*physiology; Slow Virus Diseases/pathology/transmission; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.; Tissue Culture; Zoonoses/transmission
AD Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510.
SP englisch
PO Niederlande