Mutations and A/I hypermutations in measles virus persistent infections.

Abstract

The molecular biology of measles virus (MV) and of other nonsegmented negative strand RNA viruses is currently subject to intense scrutiny for several reasons. First, acute MV infection is among the primary causes of infant death in third world countries (Bloom 1989). Second, on rare occasions, MV persistence induces lethal syndromes of the central nervous system known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and measles inclusion body encephalitis (MIBE) (reviewed in Ter Meulen et al. 1983). Third, unexpected phenomena such as biased hypermutation and RNA editing recently have been described for these viruses (reviewed in Billeter and Cattaneo 1991; Cattaneo 1990).