GENOMIC AND TEMPLATE RNA-TRANSCRIPTION IN A MODEL OF PERSISTENT ENTEROVIRAL INFECTION

Enteroviruses have been implicated in persistent infections of the ner vous system and in certain paralytic motor neurone syndromes. Enterovi ral persistence may depend on defective transcription, resulting in th e abnormal production of equal amounts of genomic and template RNA str ands rather than the normal ratio of 60 - 100 : 1. An in vitro model o f a persistent coxsackie virus in human skeletal muscle cells was inve stigated using in situ hybridisation and a semiquantitative parallel, complementary, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. The ra tio of genomic to template RNA was found to be approximately 60 : 1. W e conclude that enteroviral persistence in this in vitro model is not dependent on altered transcription. In vivo, other viral and host fact ors should be considered.