Metallothioneins and zinc dysregulation contribute to neurodevelopmental damage in a model of perinatal viral infection.

Neonatal Borna disease (NBD) virus infection in the Lewis rat results in life-long viral persistence and causes behavioral and neurodevelopmental abnormalities. A hallmark of the disorder is progressive loss of cerebellar Purkinje and dentate gyrus granule cells. Findings of increased brain metallothionein-I and -II (MT-I/-II) mRNA expression in cDNA microarray experiments led us to investigate MT isoforms and their relationship to brain zinc metabolism, cellular toxicity, and neurodevelopmental abnormalities in this model. Real-time PCR confirmed marked induction of MT-I/-II mRNA expression in the brains of NBD rats (40.5-fold increase in cerebellum, p < 0.0001; 6.8-fold increase in hippocampus, p=0.003; and 9.5-fold increase in striatum, p=0.0012), whereas a trend toward decreased MT-III mRNA was found in hippocampus (1.25-fold decrease, p=0.0841). Double label immunofluorescence revealed prominent MT-I/-II expression in astrocytes throughout the brain; MT-III protein was decreased in granule cell neurons and increased in astrocytes, with differential subcellular distribution from cytoplasmic to nuclear compartments in NBD rat hippocampus. Modified Timm staining of hippocampus revealed reduced zinc in mossy fiber projections to the hilus and CA3, accumulation of zinc in glial cells and degenerating granule cell somata, and robust mossy fiber sprouting into the inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. Zinc Transporter 3 (ZnT-3) mRNA expression was decreased in hippocampus (2.3-fold decrease, p=0.0065); staining for its correlate protein was reduced in hippocampal mossy fibers. Furthermore, 2 molecules implicated in axonal pathfinding and mossy fiber sprouting, the extracellular matrix glycoprotein, tenascin-R (TN-R), and the hyaluronan receptor CD44, were increased in NBD hippocampal neuropil. Abnormal zinc metabolism and mechanisms of neuroplasticity may contribute to the pathogenesis of disease in this model, raising more general implications for neurodevelopmental damage following viral infections in early life.