Neurological diseases are a common consequence of retroviral infections. The pathogenesis of these diseases however remains undetermined. In an attempt to elucidate the mechanisms involved in certain of these disorders, we have used an experimental approach involving transgenic mice. Transgenic animals provide an important tool in the study of retroviral diseases, since they allow us to circumvent the complex process of retroviral infection. In addition, when retroviral sequences are expressed under the regulation of a CNS-specific promoter, transgenic experiments allow us to evaluate the effects of expressing viral gene products in a given CNS cell population. Specific aspects of the neurological disorders caused by HIV-1, HTLV-1, and Cas-Br-E MuLV were evaluated. Transgenic mice experiments were generated in order to study the pathogenesis of the CNS white matter diseases caused by human retroviruses HIV-1 and by HTLV-1, and to evaluate the function of astroglial cells in mediating the CNS disease associated with Cas-Br-E MuLV infection. On the basis of our experimental results, we propose novel pathogenic mechanisms which may contribute to our understanding of the CNS diseases caused by these retroviruses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.39908 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Goudreau, Guy |
| Contributors | Jolicoeur, Paul (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Division of Experimental Medicine.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001496117, proquestno: NN12372, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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