Sindbis virus is an alphavirus that is transmitted by mosquitoes to animal and human hosts in manygeographical locations worldwide. Sindbis virus is a relatively mild human pathogen but causes mild to severe encephalitis and mortality in mice, thereby serving as a model for related human encephalitic viruses. Our laboratory has extended the use of Sindbis virus as a tool to study the role of programmed cell death in a variety of human disorders. We found that Sindbis virus infects and induces classic apoptotic cell death in a variety of cultured cell lines and in cultured primary neurons. Desp...

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