Flaviviruses in Motor Neuron Disease

Sporadic motor neuron disease (MND) causes a progressive loss of motor neurons. West Nile virus can attack motor neurons, so we examined whether flavivirus infection could be detected in MND cases. Spinal cord sections from 22 MND cases were stained immunohistochemically with a flavivirus-specific antibody. No staining for flavivirus was seen in any case. Sporadic MND does not appear to arise from a recent infection with a flavivirus.