Canine distemper virus transcripts sequenced from pagetic bone.

Paget's disease is a chronic disease of the skeleton which is believed to be caused by a persistent virus of the paramyxovirus family. There is still conflict as to the precise identity of the virus(es) involved in causing this disease. Our previous results using in situ hybridisation have implicated distemper as a possible cause of this disease. In order to confirm these results, we have reverse transcribed RNA from pagetic bone and have specifically amplified for distemper and measles sequences using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. We have found that 8/13 of the patients examined had distemper and 1/10 cases had measles nucleic acids sequestered within their bone cells. One individual was found to have both viruses sequestered in his bone cells. Dideoxy sequencing of the distemper virus PCR products revealed 2% base pair changes in the nucleic acid sequences relative to the Onderstpoort strain of canine distemper. We can conclude that in Paget's disease, canine distemper and possible other paramyxoviruses reside in bone cells and that the persistent nature of the virus may be due to mutations in the viral genome.