Isolation of a Neurotropic Type C Virus

Abstract

A neurogenic paralysis of the lower limb can be induced and serially transmitted in mice by a nontransforming type C virus strain that originated in an embryo of a wild mouse. The virus exerted a neurotropic effect on the anterior horn neurons.

Beta cell expression of endogenous xenotropic retrovirus distinguishes diabetes-susceptible NOD/Lt from resistant NON/Lt mice.

“…Intracisternal forms of type C retroviral particles have been associated with cytopathology of several disease phenotypes in mice (37)(38)(39)(40)(41), including those observed in prenecrotic CD-1 (3 cells after multidose streptozotocin administration ( 12). Moreover, a correlation between the initiation ofsevere diabetes and induction of these intracellular retroviral particles in cyclophosphamide-induced diabetes in NOD male mice has recently been reported by Suenaga and Yoon (7).…”

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in the gray tremor mutant mouse.

“…Gray tremor's spongiform encephalopathy and the transmitted disease in genetically normal mice share many morphological features with disorders known to be due to the unconventional transmissible agents (4,23), particularly experimental Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease expressed in mice (24,25). However, the transmissible agent in gray tremor has not yet been identified, and certain strains of ecotropic murine leukemia virus have been reported to cause a noninflammatory spongiform encephalopathy in wild mice (9)(10)(11)(12). In this entity, abundant type C virus particles (9,11,15), as well as occasional type A particles (9), are readily identified ultrastructurally.…”

“…These agents share the unusual properties of relative resistance to DNA inactivating procedures, sensitivity to protein denaturation, and elusiveness to ultrastructural detection; their exact molecular nature is controversial (4)(5)(6)(7)(8). Another cause of spongiform lesions appears to be certain ecotropic murine leukemia viruses (9)(10)(11)(12). All the known spongiform encephalopathies are usually sporadic, although host susceptibility and length of incubation period may be under genetic control (13)(14)(15)(16).…”

Rapid purification of extracellular and intracellular Moloney murine leukemia virus

“…Retroviruses can also be concentrated b y polyethylene glycol (PEG) (2,6,16,17,25,26,33). T h o u g h this procedure has been only rarely used, we found it, under our e x p e r i m e n t a l conditions, to be the most convenient and u n d a m a g i n g method.…”