REPLACEMENT OF LOOP-II OF VP1 OF THE DA STRAIN WITH LOOP-II OF THE GDVII STRAIN OF THEILERS MURINE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS VIRUS ALTERS NEUROVIRULENCE, VIRAL PERSISTENCE, AND DEMYELINATION

Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis viruses, which are murine picornavi ruses, can cause central nervous system inflammatory disease. To study the role of loop II in capsid protein VP1, two mutant viruses of stra in DA in which DA loop II amino acids were replaced,vith strain GDVII amino acids were constructed. Infection of mice with the two mutant vi ruses led to dramatically different patterns of disease.