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Perspective: virus infections and the death of neurons
1Dept of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.dgriffin@jhsph.edu
Trends in Microbiology
|April 28, 1999
Abstract:
Neuronotropic viruses induce apoptosis in neurons, and Bcl-2-related anti-apoptotic proteins and caspase inhibitors decrease mortality from acute viral encephalitis. Infected neurons develop cytoplasmic blebbing characteristic of apoptosis, but a paucity of apoptotic nuclear changes potentially indicates unique aspects of virus-induced neuronal apoptosis that remain to be discovered.