Neurovirology the study of viral infection of the ner vous system has evolved at the
interface of three of the most rapidly unfolding fields of investigation-neurobiology vi
rology and immunology. In all three increasing knowledge about the molecular structure of
surface receptors how in tracellular messages are transmitted and how diversity is regulated
genetically is provided along with the techniques of molecular biology. This promises to give
us knowledge not only about the process of infection and the complex host and viral
determinants of neuroinvasiveness and neurovirulence but eventually it will provide the
background from which to engineer vaccines and to devise novel therapeutic agents. Animal
virology and molecular biology developed quite independently from different origins. Animal
virology was originally the province of the pathologists and by clinical observation and
histological preparations they tried to ex plain the incubation period the pathways of virus
spread and the mechanisms of disease. Molecular virology grew out of biochemistry
particularly through studies of bacterio phage with emphasis on the physical and chemical
structure of viruses and the sequences of biochemical events during the replicative cycle in
cells.
