The development of a mouse model for poliomyelitis that is transgenic for the human poliovirus receptor (hPVR) has made it much easier to investigate the efficiency of the viral dissemination process in a whole organism. These studies have given an insight into the mechanism of blood-brain barrier permeation and neural transport. Strain-specific neurovirulence levels, however, appear to depend mainly on the replicating capacity of the virus in the central nervous system rather than the dissemination efficiency. Studies of the poliovirus-induced cytopathic effects on neural cells and specific subcellular localization of hPVR isoforms might determine a new course of investigation of poliovirus pathogenesis.
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