Virus-like particles in brain tissue from two patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Subacute spongiform encephalopathy: Electron microscopic studies

“…It is possible, then, that diminished activity of MAO in the cerebral cortex could lead to accumulation of biogenic amines and therefore increase in the number of dense core vesicles. Furthermore, we found no particles in glial cells, in which they have been reported in two cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Bots, Man, and Verjaal, 1971) and in other diseases by Gonatas, Martin, and Evangelista (1967). The lastmentioned authors emphasized that no conclusions could be drawn of the nature of the particles from morphological evidence alone; they mentioned lipid droplets or secretory granules as alternative explanations.…”

Nucleic Acid and Prion Protein Interaction Produces Spherical Amyloids which can Function in vivo as Coats of Spongiform Encephalopathy Agent

“…[21][22][23][24] Further, self-polymerisation of Alzheimer b-peptide or its polymerisation induced by various These amylospheroids, in addition to their similarities with the spherical particles, 46-51 structurally resemble the "hexagonal viruses" reported to be present in CJD brains. 52,53 The scale bar represents 100 nm. metabolites yields amyloids with overall similar morphologies.…”

“…49 Particles of similar morphologies with diameters ranging from 65 to 120 nm, termed hexagonal viruses, have been found in the tissues of patients with CJD (Figure 8a), which have been compared with the PrP SC -amylospheroids obtained in this study (Figure 8b). 52,53 The in vivo spherical particles have not been characterised biochemically, and their significance in TSE infection, if any, is unknown. 50 A close examination of the coats of the spherical particles in vivo reveals their similarities to the coat architecture of the PrP-amylospheroids we obtained in the present work.…”

Prions and related neurological diseases

“…For the 'unified theory', then, the proposal that the nucleic acid comes from the host makes its identification even more difficult. Weakening the virus and virino hypotheses is also the fact that no convincing virus particles have ever been observed under the electron microscope (Vernon et al, 1970;Narang, 1974Narang, , 1990Bots et al, 1971;Cho and Greig, 1975). However, the recent observation under the electron microscope by Ozel and Diringer (1994) that pentagonal particles resembling virus structures are found close to SAF in fractions of scrapie-infected hamster brains may give new impulse to the 'virus' theory.…”