Absence of echovirus sequences in brain and spinal cord and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The role of enteroviruses in pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is controversial. A recent study, based on reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of spinal cord, reported identification of a novel echovirus in 15 of 17 French subjects with ALS and only 1 of 29 subjects with other neurologic diseases. We established a real-time RT-PCR method based on this novel echovirus sequence and used this method and that previously employed for analysis of the French subjects to determine the prevalence of echoviral sequences in spinal cord and motor cortex of sporadic ALS subjects from the United States. No echoviral sequences were found in 20 spinal cord and 10 motor cortex samples from autopsy-confirmed cases of ALS or 13 spinal cord and 5 motor cortex samples from subjects with no motor neuron disease.

Publication Date

2-27-2001

Publication Title

Annals of Neurology

ISSN

03645134

Volume

49

Issue

2

First Page

249

Last Page

253

PubMed ID

11221802

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1002/1531-8249(20010201)49:2<249::AID-ANA46>3.0.CO;2-3

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