Borna disease virus-induced hippocampal dentate gyrus damage is associated with spatial learning and memory deficits

• Published in: Brain research bulletin Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 23 - 30
• Main Authors: Rubin, Steven A, Sylves, Peter, Vogel, Michael, Pletnikov, Michael, Moran, Timothy H, Schwartz, Gray J, Carbone, Kathryn M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 1999; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Borna Disease - complications; Borna Disease - pathology; Borna Disease - psychology; Borna disease virus; Brain; Dentate Gyrus - pathology; Experimental viral diseases and models; Infectious diseases; Maze Learning - physiology; Medical sciences; Memory Disorders - etiology; Morris water maze; Rat; Rats; Rats, Inbred Lew; Swimming; Viral diseases; Virus; Virus; Brain; Morris water maze; Behavior; Rat; Bornavirus; Memory disorder; Borna disease virus; Rodentia; Central nervous system; Space perception; Bornaviridae; Mononegavirales; Vertebrata; Dentate gyrus; Experimental disease; Mammalia; Animal; Perceptive learning; Hippocampus; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0361-9230; 1873-2747
• DOI: 10.1016/S0361-9230(98)00133-6

In neonatally inoculated rats, Borna disease virus (BDV) leads to a persistent infection of the brain in the absence of an inflammatory response and is associated with neuroanatomic, developmental, physiologic, and behavioral abnormalities. One of the most dramatic sites of BDV-associated damage in the neonatal rat brain is the dentate gyrus, a neuroanatomic region believed to play a major role in spatial learning and memory. The absence of a generalized inflammatory response to neonatal BDV infection permits direct effects of viral damage to the dentate gyrus to be examined. In this report, neonatally BDV-infected rats at various stages of dentate gyrus degeneration were evaluated in the Morris water maze, a swimming test that assesses the rats’ capacity to navigate by visual cues. Our data demonstrate progressive spatial learning and memory deficits in BDV-infected rats that coincided with a gradual decline in the estimated hippocampal dentate gyrus neuron density.