Molecular Determinants of Coronavirus Mhv- Induced Demyelination

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a member of the coronavirus family of the nidovirales order. MHV is an enveloped virus with single-stranded, positive genomic RNA of about 31kb. Infection of susceptible strains of mice with the MHV-JHM and A59 strains results in acute encephalomyelitis and chronic demyelinating disease with features similar to the human demyelination disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Because the mechanism of demyelination in MS is not completely understood, various experimental models, including MHV infection in mice, have been used to study the pathogenesis of inflammatory autoimmune demyelination. The spike (S) glycoprotein of MHV has been implicated as the most critical genomic determinant of MHV pathogenesis and demyelination. However, other genes and proteins are likely to contribute to MHV pathogenesis as well.