Frey T K
Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta 30303, USA.
Intervirology. 1997;40(2-3):167-75. doi: 10.1159/000150543.
Rubella virus is a single-stranded, plus-sense RNA virus belonging to the Togaviridae family. Rubella virus infection causes a benign disease known as rubella or German measles, however infection during early pregnancy can lead to severe birth defects known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). Sequelae of rubella virus infection include three distinct neurological syndromes: a postinfectious encephalitis following acute infection, a spectrum of neurological manifestations following congenital infection, and an extremely rare neurodegenerative disorder, progressive rubella panencephalitis (PRP), that can follow either congenital or postnatal infection. The pathogenesis of all three of these syndromes is incompletely understood. Virus invasion and replication in the brain has only been definitively demonstrated in CRS and appears to account for the majority of neurological lesions observed in this disease. Immune-mediated pathology is particularly evident in PRP and may be autoimmune in nature, possibly triggered by molecular mimicry between viral and host epitopes, considering the apparent lack of virus in the brain. The pathogenesis of rubella encephalitis following acute infection has not been determined.
风疹病毒是一种单链正义RNA病毒，属于披膜病毒科。风疹病毒感染会引发一种名为风疹或德国麻疹的良性疾病，然而在妊娠早期感染可导致严重的出生缺陷，即先天性风疹综合征（CRS）。风疹病毒感染的后遗症包括三种不同的神经综合征：急性感染后的感染后脑炎、先天性感染后的一系列神经表现，以及一种极为罕见的神经退行性疾病，即进行性风疹全脑炎（PRP），它可发生于先天性或后天性感染之后。这三种综合征的发病机制尚未完全明确。仅在先天性风疹综合征中明确证实了病毒在脑内的侵袭和复制，这似乎是该疾病中观察到的大多数神经病变的原因。免疫介导的病理在进行性风疹全脑炎中尤为明显，可能本质上是自身免疫性的，考虑到脑内明显缺乏病毒，可能是由病毒和宿主表位之间的分子模拟引发的。急性感染后风疹性脑炎的发病机制尚未确定。
