why haven't I heard of this one before ??

[Guest guest]

Borna disease virus (BDV)-induced model of autism: application to vaccine safety test design.

Viruses kill cells in the central nervous system (CNS) by direct, and indirect mechanisms. Viruses

also can persistently infect cells and disrupt specialized neural cell activities important for the organism without killing the infected neural cell. BDV infection of neonatal rats provides an animal model system

to study virus-induced injury to the immature CNS. A decade of multidisciplinary research on neonatally BDV-infected rats culminated in

the recognition of the value of this first virus-induced animal model of autism spectrum disorders. Mumps virus is a highly neurotropic common

child-hood pathogen. The authors created and tested the first developmentally relevant neurovirulence test using wild-type and vaccine

mumps virus strains that shows a direct correlation between virus replication and development of enlarged brain ventricles (hydrocephalus)

in the neonatally infected rat brain with the virus strains known human

neurovirulence potential. Quantitative evidence of the severity of hydrocephalus in the rat was proportional to the neurovirulence of the virus strains in humans. Developed in response to concerns of vaccine-induced developmental brain damage, the principles of the mumps vaccine neurovirulence assay methodology are being applied to the development of neurovirulence tests for other live, attenuated virus vaccines. (PsycINFO Database Record © 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Carbone, K. M., Department of Psychiatry, s Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, US, carbonek@...

Rubin, S. A., Laboratory of Pediatric and Respiratory Viral Diseases, s Hopkins University School of Medicine, Rockville, MD, US

Pletnikov, M., Department of Psychiatry, s Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, US