Scrapie: a virus-induced amyloidosis of the brain.

We have studied the pathogenesis of scrapie in hamsters, in particular the increase of infectivity and the formation of scrapie-associated fibrils in relation to clinical disease. The results of such studies after intraperitoneal or intracerebral infection are consistent with the idea that transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are a type of virus-induced, brain-specific amyloidosis. Therefore, an appropriate name for the class of viruses that cause these diseases might be amyloid-inducing viruses.