Rabies RNA synthesis, detected with cDNA probes, as a marker for virus transport in the rat nervous system

The kinetics of viral RNA synthesis in different parts of the rat brain, infected with fixed or street rabies virus strains, is correlated with their anatomical neuronal connections with the masseter muscles, using hybridization with rabies cDNA probes. Viral RNA synthesis is first detected in the brain-stem and in the pons where the direct anatomical projection of the masseter muscle nervous arborization into the sensory and motor nuclei is located, through the trigeminus nerve. Rabies RNA detection is delayed in the other regions of the rat brain depending on the time course of virus transport from the trigeminal nuclei through multiple nervous connections.