O'Sullivan, L; (2007) Can Epstein Barr virus infect human brain cells in culture? Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

Preview

Text O'Sullivan_thesis.pdf Download (10MB) | Preview

Abstract

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS) with heterogeneous disease course, pathology and global distribution, though its aetiology remains unknown. There is evidence that genetic risk factors are involved, but the mode of inheritance is highly polygenetic and is probably responsible for producing a background of susceptibility in an individual. It is therefore likely that external factors influence the risk of MS development through gene-environment interaction and it is possible that infectious agents such as viruses could contribute to MS pathogenesis in this manner. Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) is a human herpesvirus that has been consistently linked with EBV throughout the last twenty years. EBV preferentially infects B cells and following infection persists in the host throughout the entire lifespan The aim of this study was to successfully culture and infect epithelial cell lines and primary culture models of glial white matter and neuronal grey matter and examine the tropism of EBV through the use of PCR and RT-PCR techniques, and immunocytochemistry. Our results show that EBNA1 protein expression is present in B cells as well as in epithelial cell lines RPE and HTB-9 and primary human mixed brain and neuronal cultures when they are exposed to cell-free EBV. There is also evidence that supports the production of different EBNA1 splice variants in the EBV infected human mixed brain cultures as compared to the B cell B95-8 EBV system. However, these are preliminary results that require further investigation. In conclusion, these results suggest that EBV may be able to infect primary human brain cells in culture. This may support the hypothesis that EBV plays a role in the pathogenesis of MS and could contribute to the development of a human neurovirological model of MS in the future.

Download activity - last month

Export as JSONCSVXML

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as JSONCSVXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Archive Staff Only

View Item