Disease relevance of X

• Two major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted epitopes of the Borna disease virus p10 protein identified by cytotoxic T lymphocytes induced by DNA-based immunization [1].
• Twenty-four of 52 cats (46.2%) with ataxia and other neurologic symptoms of unknown cause were positive for antibodies to BDV p10 and/or p24 [2].

High impact information on X

• Characterization of an unusual importin alpha binding motif in the borna disease virus p10 protein that directs nuclear import [3].
• These findings suggest that nuclear import of the Borna disease virus p10 protein occurs through a nonconventional karyophilic signal and highlight that the cellular importin alpha NLS receptor proteins can recognize nuclear targeting signals that substantially deviate from the consensus sequence [3].
• Of the six open reading frames of BDV, CTLs to BDV X (p10) and the L-polymerase have never been studied [1].
• Three injections of a recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmid of BDV p10 were needed to generate a weak anti-p10 immunoglobulin M response [1].
• Hence, p10 may play a role in the replication of BDV in the cell nucleus [4].

Biological context of X

• Furthermore, binding of p10 to the viral phosphoprotein was shown to be important for association with the BDV-specific intranuclear clusters that may represent the sites of virus replication and transcription in infected cells [5].
• In this study, we cloned the nucleotide sequence of ORFx1 into expression vectors and showed that it is expressed as p10 [6].
• Four regions of the BDV genome were analysed: the complete p40, p10 and p24 genes and the 5'-untranslated region of the X/P transcript [7].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of X

• The time course for appearance of antibodies to Borna disease virus (BDV) major antigens, p40, p24, p18 and p10 were investigated in BDV-inoculated adult rats by Western blotting [8].
• The successful isolation of the corresponding mRNA from infected cells, amplification of the genetic region by RT-PCR and its efficient expression as a glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion protein demonstrated that antibodies specific for the BDV p10 protein are induced in infected animals [9].

References