A non-retroviral RNA virus persists in DNA form

Paul Klenerman, Hans Hengartner and Rolf M. Zinkernagel ()
Additional contact information
Paul Klenerman: Institute of Experimental Immunology, University Hospital
Hans Hengartner: Institute of Experimental Immunology, University Hospital
Rolf M. Zinkernagel: Institute of Experimental Immunology, University Hospital

Nature, 1997, vol. 390, issue 6657, 298-301

Abstract: Abstract Infection of adult mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), a non-cytopathic segmented RNA virus, leads initially to generalized infection, followed by clearance and subsequent lifelong immunity. Indirect evidence has suggested that viral antigens may persist in lymphoid tissues during the phase of immunological memory, but viral genomic RNA has not been detected in previous studies1,2. During a search for persistent virus in the spleen, we identified LCMV-specific sequences present as DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in mice over 200 days after infection. In vivo and in vitro studies revealed that reverse transcription of viral RNA into complementary DNA occurred after acute infection of cells of its natural hosts, mouse and hamster, but not of other species and could be inhibited in vitro by azidothymidine (AZT), indicating that this was mediated by endogenous reverse transcriptase activity. These findings reveal a surprising and new pathway of interaction between exogenous RNA viruses and endogenous retroviral, and perhaps other host components, that results in the persistence of virally determined DNA. We speculate that the latter may function in vivo as a form of DNA vaccine.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/36876 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:390:y:1997:i:6657:d:10.1038_36876

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/36876

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().