Possible roles of transcription factors of pseudorabies virus in neuropathogenicity.

Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is also known by its taxonomic name, suid herpesvirus 1, or by its original name, Aujeszky's disease virus. PRV is a swine herpesvirus of the Alphaherpesvirinae subfamily to which varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) belong. PRV is a pathogen of swine resulting in devastating disease and economic losses worldwide. It causes severe neurological disorders in infected piglets and latent infection in surviving pigs. PRV also causes acute and often fatal infection in other domestic and wild animals. PRV has been of interest to virologists and neurobiologists. This herpesvirus has served as a useful model organism for the study of herpesvirus biology. The virus has also been used as a "live" tracer of neuronal pathways, making use of its remarkable propensity to infect synaptically connected neurons. Transcription factors of alphaherpesviruses not only control the expression of their own viral genes, but also influence the gene expression of other viruses and mammalian cells. This review focuses on recent reports regarding the use of transgenic mice to study the contributions of PRV transcription factors to the neuropathogenicity and the functions of their transcriptional regulatory elements.