Borna Disease Virus Infection Perturbs Energy Metabolites and Amino Acids in Cultured Human Oligodendroglia Cells

Borna disease virus (BDV) is an enveloped neurotropic RNA virus. It replicates in the nucleus of host cell instead of the cytoplasm as in the case of most viruses. This unusual mechanisms of protein synthesis has been associated with alterations of metabolism in the host cell without causing a cytolytic infection. To investigate how BDV alters host cell metabolism, human oligodendroglia cells were infected with human BDV Hu-H1 strain. Metabolic profiling of these cells was done using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy and direct comparison was done with uninfected control cells. Multivariate statistical analysis showed that twenty-three metabolites were significantly altered. Changes in key metabolites such as pyruvate, glucose, succinate and acetyl CoA suggested decrease in glycolysis and increase in citric acid cycle activity, mitochondrial respiration and lipid biosynthesis. In addition there were alterations in several amino acids accounting for disruptions in neurotransmitter pathways that are commonly observed in BDV infections. 
(SWM)