High susceptibility of Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) to Borna disease virus.

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a neurotropic enveloped virus with a nonsegmented, single-, negative-stranded RNA genome. This virus induced encephalitis in experimentally infected adult rats, but in newborn rats BDV established a persistent, tolerant infection with no apparent clinical signs. Here, we report evidence that newborn Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) are more susceptible to experimental intracranial inoculation of horse-derived BDV in persistently infected MDCK cells, compared with similar inoculation in newborn rats. All inoculated newborn gerbils, but not rats, died 30 days after infection. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction amplified BDV-specific sequences in several regions including the brain. Histopathological analysis revealed apparent inflammatory reactions in the brains of inoculated gerbils but not rats, although similar levels of BDV RNA were detected in both gerbil and rat brains. BDV-specific antigen and RNA were identified predominantly in neurons in the brains by immunohistochemistry with antibodies to BDV and in situ hybridization with BDV-specific riboprobes, respectively. BDV in the gerbil brain was easily rescued by co-cultivation of the brain homogenate with human oligodendroglioma cells. Thus, gerbils seem to be a useful animal model for studying BDV-induced pathogenesis in the brain.