Enquist L W
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
J Infect Dis. 2002 Dec 1;186 Suppl 2:S209-14. doi: 10.1086/344278.
The neurotropic alpha-herpesviruses are common mammalian pathogens that invade the peripheral and central nervous system of their hosts. Their ability to invade and spread in the nervous system in a directional manner has been exploited to develop them as neuronal circuit tracers. Tracing viruses spread among synaptically connected neurons and, by assaying brain sections for viral antigen or reporter genes expressed from the viruses, chains of synaptically connected neurons can be visualized. Virulent field strains generally are not good tracers, but some attenuated strains perform well. Live attenuated vaccine strains of pseudorabies virus (PRV), such as PRV Bartha, are among the most popular virus circuit tracers. It may be counterintuitive that attenuation results in improved neural tracing that requires extensive replication and spread in the brain. This report summarizes two lines of experiments directed to resolving this apparent paradox and introduces a new paradigm for tracing viruses.
嗜神经性α-疱疹病毒是常见的哺乳动物病原体，可侵入宿主的外周和中枢神经系统。它们以定向方式在神经系统中侵入和传播的能力已被用于将它们开发为神经元回路示踪剂。示踪病毒在突触连接的神经元之间传播，通过检测脑切片中病毒抗原或病毒表达的报告基因，可以观察到突触连接的神经元链。强毒株一般不是好的示踪剂，但一些减毒株表现良好。伪狂犬病病毒（PRV）的减毒活疫苗株，如PRV Bartha，是最受欢迎的病毒回路示踪剂之一。减毒导致需要在大脑中广泛复制和传播的神经示踪得到改善，这可能有违直觉。本报告总结了旨在解决这一明显悖论的两条实验路线，并介绍了一种示踪病毒的新范式。
