Virus-like structure in multiple sclerosis

Search for morbillivirus proteins in multiple sclerosis brain tissue

We investigated brain samples of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and controls with immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) against canine distemper virus (CDV) and measles virus (MV) proteins. All stained negative except for MoAb F3-5, which recognises a conserved epitope on the fusion protein of morbilliviruses. F3-5 immunostaining was found in 8/9 MS plaques and 2/5 herpes simplex virus encephalitis brain samples, but not in six controls or four patients with ischaemic stroke. Using RT-PCR we found no evidence for the presence of MV in MS plaques. The F3-5 epitope may represent a protein that is upregulated during inflammation or point to a yet unrecognised morbillivirus in the human central nervous system that might be implicated in MS pathogenesis.

Nonviral intranuclear inclusions in a nerve biopsy: an ultrastructural study

During the ultrastructural study of a nerve biopsy from a diabetic patient suffering from chronic polyradiculoneuritis, we observed that a significant number of endoneural fibroblasts had abnormal nuclei. They contained a round, centrally located inclusion consisting of numerous irregularly arranged filaments approximately 15 nm in diameter. No such lesion in peripheral nerve has previously been reported. Interpretation of these abnormalities is difficult.

Diagnostic virology using electron microscopic techniques

This chapter illustrates the development of the use of electron microscopy in viral diagnosis. The field covered is confined to medical viral diagnosis, but parallel developments have taken place in both veterinary and botanical fields and techniques derived from both these sources are also included where relevant. It is reported that the scanning transmission mode of operation, which can induce image contrast changes electronically, may enhance studies with unstained sections and perhaps facilitate thin section immune electron microscopy (IEM). The application of negative stain IEM has been particularly useful for the study of the antigenic nature of some of the newly discovered noncultivable viruses. Viral antigens can also be detected in thin sections of infected cells by IEM with suitably labeled specific antibodies. Confirmation of viral infection by electron microscopy on tissues originally processed for light microscopy is also frequently useful.

The effects of measles virus and various strains of SSPE virus on organotypic cultures of nervous tissue

The neurotropic effects, virologic behaviors and morphologic appearances of 4 strains of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) virus have been examined in organotypic cultures of hamster cerebellar tissue and have been compared with the Edmonston strain of measles virus in the same system. While measles virus caused extensive damage to nervous tissue, the SSPE strains, in general, exerted a less deleterious effect. All of the SSPE viruses replicated in this tissue. The SSPE strains showed morphologic variation ranging from normal measles-type virions to apparently nucleocapsid deficient forms. It is speculated that some of these differences between measles and SSPE virus may account for the differences in the in vivo conditions with which they are associated.

Lysolecithin fusion of cells from multiple sclerosis patients with Vero cells

Investigations were performed on cell cultures derived from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in order to trace a possible virus infection as a cause of the disease. Cell cultures were established from one brain autopsy specimen and four lymph node biopsies from MS patients. Lymphocytes from 28 MS patients and six healthy controls were used for fusion or cocultivation experiments, either immediately after isolation or after mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLC). Lysolecithin fusion and cocultivation experiments were made with Vero cells and with, respectively: cultured brain cells, lymph node cells and lymphocytes from MS patients. Electron microscopical examination revealed intranuclear filamentous structures in 5 per cent of the cells in primary cultures of MS brain and lymph node and in control skin organ cultures. Multinucleated cells were found in six out of 19 cocultures of Vero cells and MS lymphocytes preincubated for 2 days at 37 degrees C. The cultures were tested for the presence of viruses, i.e. measles virus and virus producing hemadsorption with human type O and/or guinea pig erythrocytes and virus against which the MS patients showed serum FA-antibodies. No virus antigen could be demonstrated in the cells.

Pathology of the human spinal ganglia in varicella-zoster virus infection

Spinal ganglia from a patient who died on the 6th day of varicella infection were examined by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy, and were compared with spinal ganglia from a patient dying on the 17th day of herpes zoster infection. In herpes zoster, typical intranuclear inclusion bodies were found in neurons, satellite cells and fibroblast-like cells of the ganglia, which contained numerous naked virus particles. In varicella, few changes were found by light microscopy but viral antigen was detected in a few neurons and satellite cells by immunofluorescence. Electron microscopy revealed scattered virus particles near the nuclear membrane of a neuron, satellite cells and capsular cells and enveloped particles in the cytoplasm of satellite cells. The particles in the nuclei were mostly naked virions with specific crescent-like inner-nuclear structure; those in the cytoplasm had complete and incomplete envelopes and showed pleomorphism. A "virus-like" intranuclear filament found in mononuclear cells in herpes zoster and a "plexiform vermicellar array" found in the nuclei of neurons in varicella are at present considered to be non-specific nuclear changes caused probably by viral infections.

Multiple sclerosis and parainfluenza 1 virus. History of the isolation of the virus and expression of phenotypic differences between the isolated virus and Sendai virus

54 cultures were established from brain tissue obtained 2-3 hrs after death from 1 case of multiple sclerosis and 30 cultures from another case. Following fusion with indicator cells in the presence of lysolecithin, a parainfluenza type 1 virus (6/94 virus) was isolated from cultures representing one plaque area in the first case and one plaque area in the second case. A cell line chronically infected with the 6/94 virus has been maintained for more than 100 passages in vitro. A close relationship to the Sendai Hemagglutinating Virus of Japan (HVJ) is indicated from RNA-RNA hybridization and the patterns of electrophoretic mobilities of viral polypeptides. Conversely, differences in optima for growth-requirement temperatures, hemolytic activity and the capability to fuse mammalian cells, distinguishes 6/94 virus and HVJ as distinct phenotypic entities of a closely related genotype.

Pathology of the early lesion in multiple sclerosis

Ideas concerning the nature of multiple sclerosis continue to be strongly influenced by the unusual morphology of the disease. A review of classic histology studies, however, reveals that there is less agreement than might be supposed concerning several important histiological features of the early lesion. Electron microscopy of brain biopsies, of immersion fixed autopsy tissue and of autopsy tissue fixed by early in situ brain perfusion suggests that the mechanism of demyelination in multiple sclerosis may be an unusual one that involves a progressive reduction in the number of myelin lamellae around nerve fibers in the vicinity of cells of uncertain origin that contain filamentous and multilamellated cytoplasmic inclusions unlike the usual pleomorphic inclusions seen in myelin phagocytes. Lymphocytes are not directly involved in this process but are observed to contact the inclusion material following its delivery to the Virchow-Robin spaces. The putative neurogenic or viral antigen in multiple sclerosis may be contained in this material. The occurrence of filamentous nuclei in early lesions fixed by immersion is an unrelated phenomenon, which may be an autolytic or drug induced artifact although this has not yet been established.

Intranuclear "paramyxovirus-like" material in multiple sclerosis, adreno-leukodystrophy and Kuf's disease

Detailed comparative ultrastructural examination of multiple sclerosis (MS) plaques, inflammatory CNS lesions from adreno-leukodystrophy(A-LD), tissue from a case of chronic granulomatous meningitis, biopsy samples of necrotic cerebral cortex and CNS tissue from a case of Kuf's disease (adult-type ceroid lipofuscinosis), has revealed that the intranuclear filamentous material previously thought to be related to a viral infection in MS is a non-specific finding. These intranuclear strands were, however, found in greatest frequency in the acute lesions of MS and were absent from chronically demyelinated areas. The macrophages, lymphocytes and fibrocytes containing filamentous material in the nuclei were mainly perivascular. In A-LD, some macrophages in active lesions contained similar nuclei, and in Kuf's disease they were present in some glial cells in the cerebral cortex.

Analysis of a viral agent isolated from multiple sclerosis brain tissue: characterization as a parainfluenzavirus type 1

A virus originally isolated from cell cultures obtained by lysolecithin-induced fusion of human multiple sclerosis brain cells with CV-1 cells has been analyzed for its antigenic, RNA, and polypeptide compositions, and for selective biological properties. Our findings establish that this isolate, designated 6/94 virus, contains a 50S RNA genome and is, as yet, indistinguishable from Sendai virus in its antigenic and total polypeptide compositions. Despite these similarities, the 6/94 and Sendai viruses differ in certain phenotypic properties. 6/94 virus is markedly less cytocidal for chick fibroblasts, especially at 37 C and, after beta-propiolactone inactivation, it possesses a greater capacity for cell fusion and a lower toxicity than does comparably treated Sendai virus. In addition, 6/94 virus shows greater hemolytic activity.

A depression of cell-mediated immunity to measles antigen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Using the direct migration inhibition test, response to measles antigen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was found to be decreased when compared with that of normal subjects. No alteration was observed in similar experiments using parainfluenza type 1 and rubella antigens. The specific decrease in measles antigen effect showed no obvious correlation with activity of SLE or with the presence of lymphocytotoxic antibodies. Whether the specificity of the decrease in reactivity is due to some particular relationship between the measles virus or antigen and SLE, or to the possibility that measles reactivity is a more sensitive indicator of a generalized defect of cell-mediated immunity, remains unclear.