No metagenomic evidence of causative viral pathogens in postencephalitic parkinsonism following encephalitis lethargica

Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245074
  • Postencephalitic parkinsonism (PEP) is a disease of unknown etiology and pathophysiology following encephalitis lethargica (EL), an acute-onset polioencephalitis of cryptic cause in the 1920s. PEP is a tauopathy with multisystem neuronal loss and gliosis, clinically characterized by bradykinesia, rigidity, rest tremor, and oculogyric crises. Though a viral cause of EL is likely, past polymerase chain reaction-based investigations in the etiology of both PEP and EL were negative. PEP might be caused directly by an unknown viral pathogen or thePostencephalitic parkinsonism (PEP) is a disease of unknown etiology and pathophysiology following encephalitis lethargica (EL), an acute-onset polioencephalitis of cryptic cause in the 1920s. PEP is a tauopathy with multisystem neuronal loss and gliosis, clinically characterized by bradykinesia, rigidity, rest tremor, and oculogyric crises. Though a viral cause of EL is likely, past polymerase chain reaction-based investigations in the etiology of both PEP and EL were negative. PEP might be caused directly by an unknown viral pathogen or the consequence of a post-infectious immunopathology. The development of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in conjunction with bioinformatic techniques has generated a broad-range tool for the detection of unknown pathogens in the recent past. Retrospective identification and characterization of pathogens responsible for past infectious diseases can be successfully performed with formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples. In this study, we analyzed 24 FFPE brain samples from six patients with PEP by unbiased metagenomic next-generation sequencing. Our results show that no evidence for the presence of a specific or putative (novel) viral pathogen was found, suggesting a likely post-infectious immune-mediated etiology of PEP.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Dániel Cadar, Kurt A. Jellinger, Peter Riederer, Sabrina Strobel, Camelia-Maria Monoranu, Dennis Tappe
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245074
Document Type:Journal article
Faculties:Medizinische Fakultät / Pathologisches Institut
Medizinische Fakultät / Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie
Language:English
Parent Title (English):Microorganisms
ISSN:2076-2607
Year of Completion:2021
Volume:9
Issue:8
Article Number:1716
Source:Microorganisms (2021) 9:8, 1716. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9081716
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9081716
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Tag:encephalitis lethargica; metagenomics; neuropathology; postencephalitic parkinsonism; tauopathy; von Economo
Release Date:2022/11/29
Date of first Publication:2021/08/12
Licence (German):License LogoCC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 4.0 International