Overexpression of MAP2 and NF-H Associated with Dendritic Pathology in the Spinal Cord of Mice Infected with Rabies Virus

Abstract

Rabies is a viral infection that targets the nervous system, specifically neurons. The clinical manifestations of the disease are dramatic and their outcome fatal; paradoxically, conventional histopathological descriptions reveal only subtle changes in the affected nervous tissue. Some researchers have considered that the pathophysiology of rabies is based more on biochemical changes than on structural alterations, as is the case with some psychiatric diseases. However, we believe that it has been necessary to resort to other methods that allow us to analyze the effect of the infection on neurons. The Golgi technique is the gold standard for studying the morphology of all the components of a neuron and the cytoskeletal proteins are the structural support of dendrites and axons. We have previously shown, in the mouse cerebral cortex and now with this work in spinal cord, that rabies virus generates remarkable alterations in the morphological pattern of the neurons and that this effect is associated with the increase in the expression of two cytoskeletal proteins (MAP2 and NF-H). It is necessary to deepen the investigation of the pathogenesis of rabies in order to find therapeutic alternatives to a disease to which the World Health Organization classifies as a neglected disease.

Novel role of SARM1 mediated axonal degeneration in the pathogenesis of rabies

“…In spite of the severe neurological signs, pathological lesions typical of other viral encephalitis such as gliosis, perivascular lymphocytic infiltration, phagocytosis of neurons or neuronal apoptosis are rarely observed in rabies patients during the acute disease [18][19][20]. However structural damage to neurites such as focal axonal swelling, segmental demyelination and impairment of synaptic transmission are observed in natural [21][22][23][24][25] and experimental rabies infections [26][27][28][29][30][31]. This evidence suggests that rabies infection could induce pathological damage to the axons and dendrites of neurons without affecting the neuronal cell body.…”

A combinatorial method to visualize the neuronal network in the mouse spinal cord: combination of a modified Golgi-Cox method and synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography

“…First, the current staining frequently results in incomplete vasculature. The residual blood within the tissue will affect the staining, and the neuronal structure will be interfered with the incomplete vascular structure (Mizutani et al 2008(Mizutani et al , 2010Gaballa and Goldman 1999;Monroy-Gomez et al 2018). However, few studies have mentioned how to improve this issue (Rosoklija et al 2014).…”

Hsp70 Is a Potential Therapeutic Target for Echovirus 9 Infection

“…While viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that have a life cycle requiring the engagements and modification of cytoskeleton at all stages, from invasion through replication to budding and transmission. By far, lots of viruses have been reported that evolved to engage and subvert the cytoskeleton proteins' function, such as RSV (Shahriari et al, 2016 ), Dengue Virus (Wang et al, 2010 ), Rubella virus (Krater et al, 2018 ), avian influenza viruses (Guo et al, 2018 ), rabies virus (Monroy-Gomez et al, 2018 ), Rhinovirus (Michi and Proud, 2018 ). In the present study, the microtubule-associated proteins Tubb5, Tuba3, the intermediate filament proteins Prph, Vim, and microfilament-associated protein Capza1 were down-regulated by echovirus infection, while microfilament-associated protein Actb and keratin-associated protein Krt83 were up-regulated.…”