PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

W I Lipkin

Publications and source records attributed to W I Lipkin.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Borna disease virus, a negative-strand RNA virus, transcribes in the nucleus of infected cells.

Borna disease virus, an unclassified infectious agent, causes immune-mediated neurologic disease in a wide variety of animal hosts and may be involved in pathogenesis of selected neuropsychiatric diseases in man. Initial reports suggested that Borna disease virus is a single-stranded RNA virus. We describe here a method for isolation of viral particles that has allowed definitive identification of the genome as containing a negative-polarity RNA. Further, we show that the viral mRNAs are transcribed in the nucleus.

Borna disease virus↗
PubMed1992

Sequence similarity between Borna disease virus p40 and a duplicated domain within the paramyxovirus and rhabdovirus polymerase proteins.

We report the sequence of a Borna disease virus clone (pBDV-40) that encodes a 40-kDa protein (p40) found in the nuclei of infected cells. Comparative sequence analysis indicates that p40 is distantly similar to two different regions in the L-polymerase proteins encoded by paramyxoviruses and rhabdoviruses. The p40 sequence similarity indicates a previously undetected duplication in these viral polymerases. Phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that the gene that encodes p40 last shared a common ancestor with these viral polymerase genes prior to the duplication event. These findings support the hypothesis that Borna disease virus is a negative-strand RNA virus and suggest that p40 is involved in transcription and/or replication. The discovery of a duplication within the polymerase proteins of paramyxoviruses and rhabdoviruses has profound implications for the mapping of enzymatic activities within these multifunctional proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Borna disease virus replicates in astrocytes, Schwann cells and ependymal cells in persistently infected rats: location of viral genomic and messenger RNAs by in situ hybridization.

Borna disease (BD) is an immune-mediated neurological disease caused by infection of the nervous system with a negative strand RNA virus, Borna disease virus (BDV). The host range for BDV is broad and extends from birds to primates. A BDV-like agent may cause disease in humans. Until recently, BDV-infected neural cells could only be identified immunocytochemically using serum from BDV-infected animals. The advent of BDV cDNA clones allowed definition of the relationship between viral nucleic acids and viral proteins in vivo. In situ hybridization with strand-specific RNA probes from a BDV cDNA clone, pAF4, identified BDV genomic RNA and BDV mRNAs in neurons, astrocytes, Schwann cells and ependymal cells in an anatomic distribution consistent with that of BDV proteins. Genomic RNA was contained primarily within the nucleus, whereas mRNAs were found in both the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments. Viral RNAs were demonstrated in neurons expressing BDV proteins and in glial cells by combined techniques of immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Isolation and characterization of Borna disease agent cDNA clones.

Borna disease (BD) is a neurologic syndrome characterized by behavioral disturbances and the accumulation of specific proteins in limbic system neurons. A viral etiology has been proposed because BD can be induced in birds, rodents, and primates by inoculation with filtered brain homogenates from animals with BD. We report here the isolation and preliminary characterization of cDNA clones from a rat with BD. These clones hybridized to specific transcripts in BD rat brain and arrested in vitro translation of BD proteins. In situ hybridization experiments using RNA probes prepared from these clones showed an abundance of these transcripts in limbic system neurons. Northern (RNA) hybridizations using these RNA probes indicated that the BD agent is probably a virus with major transcripts of 8.5, 2.1, and 0.8 kilobases.

Animals↗