Molecular approach to understanding and controlling morbillivirus infections

摘要

Rapid and accurate diagnosis is the most important factor which will determine the success of the current efforts to achieve global eradication of rinderpest. Improved diagnostic capabilities have great relevance for this programme, and molecular biology has provided many valuable new techniques which have been adapted for use in diagnostic and epidemiological studies on viruses. Nucleic acid probe hybridization and monoclonal antibody based ELISAs, which are more sensitive and more specific than classic diagnostic techniques such as agar gel immunofiffusion (AGID) and complement fixation, have proved their usefulness in recent years. However, the most significant advance has been the introduction of the polymerase chain reaction for the detection and identification of disease causing pathogens of medical and veterinary importance. This technique has revolutionized understanding of the epidemiology of rinderpest and other morbilliviruses. Molecular biology has also produced a new generation of recombinant vaccines which will be of use in controlling rinderpest and other morbillivirus diseases, and the molecular basis of morbillivirus pathogenicity is being studied using newly perfected techniques to obtain live virus from DNA copies of their genomes.