Propagation of swine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus and pseudorabies virus in dorsal root ganglia cells

Swine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (HEV) causes encephalomyelitis or vomiting and wasting disease in suckling piglets. Neurotoropism of the virus has been demonstrated in previous in vivo studies. In the present study, we investigated the infectivity and propagation of HEV in comparison with those of pseudorabies virus (PRV), another neurotropic virus, using dorsal root ganglia cells of newborn mice containing nerve cells and non-neuronal cells. HEV infected nerve cells but did not infect non-neuronal cells, whereas PRV infected both cell types. By using cytoskeletal inhibitors, it was suggested that propagation of HEV and PRV within and among nerve cells depended on microtubules and intermediate filaments of nerve cells, indicating that the viruses may be transported between the cell body and axonal terminals of neurons by fast axonal flow.