Persistence of Echovirus Type 6 in Cultured Cells

Abstract

Human enteroviruses cause a wide spectrum of systemic infections including myocarditis and encephalitis. Although these viruses are usually cytocidal and cause self-limiting infections, the enteroviruses can also establish persistent infections which result in chronic disease syndromes [3, 7, 9, 11, 14, 17–19]. Recent experiments by Kandolf [7] suggest that chronic dilated cardiomyopathies are associated with persistence of a variety of different enteroviruses, including echovirusese In my laboratory, we have utilized in vitro models to study the cellular and molecular aspects of acute and chronic infections by the human enterovirus, echovirus type 6. The purpose of these studies is to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the stability and duration of viruses during either acute or chronic infections. The ultimate goal of these studies is to develop an approach for the prevention and/or treatment of acute and chronic enterovirus infections including viral heart disease.