Home > Authors > Laura Christine Ellis > Investigating the roles of the JC virus agnogene and regulatory region using a naturally occurring, pathogenic viral isolate
Investigating the roles of the JC virus agnogene and regulatory region using a naturally occurring, pathogenic viral isolate
Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML) is caused by lytic infection of oligodendrocytes by JC Virus (JCV). JCV Encephalopathy (JCVE) is a newly identified disease characterized by JCV infection of cortical pyramidal neurons. JCVCPN was isolated from the brain of a JCVE patient. JCVCPN contains a unique 143 base pair deletion in the agnogene and has an archetype-like regulatory region (RR), of the type typically found in the kidneys. In this dissertation, we studied the JCVCPN virus to better understand the role of the agnogene and the RR in JCV replication. We used kidney, glial and neuronal cell lines to compare the replication of JCVCPN to the prototype virus JCVMad-1. JCVCPN was able to replicate viral DNA in all cell lines tested, but was unable to establish the high level of infection seen with JCVMad-1. Levels of VP1 capsid protein were undetectable in JCVCPN...