ABSTRACT
A comprehensive history of Borna disease virus (BDV) and this infection, including the complete bibliography, is presented. Over the last 200 years, descriptions of this 'head disease' of horses ('Kopfkrankheit der Pferde') have been given. Considerable losses in the horse population (< 0.8%) led to intensive clinical and (neuro-)pathological investigations of this meningitis cerebrospinalis which occurs with faint behavioural changes, occasionally followed by severe neurological symptomatology and death. The broad experimental host range reflects infections in nature which include horses, sheep, cattle, cats, dogs, rodents, ostriches, and some zoo animals. BDV infections are associated with phylogentically old brain areas, and the retina. Occasionally, expression in the autonomic nervous system occurs, besides its neurotropism BDV can spread to peripheral organs, especially to epithelial tissues and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Infections of humans that can be monitored by antibodies, antigens or nucleic acids in blood samples are prominent features of future interest. BDV, the prototype of the family Bornaviridae is an enveloped spherical virus carrying an 8.9 kb single-stranded, non-segmented RNA with negative polarity which replicates in the nucleus. These features together with its considerable genetic stability make this non-cytopathogenic virus an evolutionary 'old pathogen' in nature.
Subject(s)
Borna Disease/history , Borna disease virus/pathogenicity , Animals , Borna Disease/epidemiology , Borna disease virus/isolation & purification , Brain/pathology , Brain/virology , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Retina/pathology , Retina/virologyABSTRACT
Borna disease has a 230 year old history, having first been described in 1766. Scientific studies of borna disease began in 1895. Ernst Joest and Kurt Degen found inclusion bodies within ganglion cells of the hippocampus in 1909. Wilhelm Zwick successfully transmitted Borna disease to rabbits in 1924. This marked the beginning of systematic studies to determine the pathogenesis of Borna disease as it is now understood in the 1990s.
