RESUMEN
Numerous interactions of the immune system with the central nervous system have been described recently. Mood and psychotic disorders, such as severe depression and schizophrenia, are both heterogeneous disorders regarding clinical symptomatology, the acuity of symptoms, the clinical course, the treatment response, and probably also the etiology. Detection of p24 RNA from Borna disease virus (BDV) by the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and in their biological relatives was evaluated. The subjects were 27 schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients, 27 healthy controls, 20 relatives without psychiatric disease, and 24 relatives with mood disorder, who attended the Psychiatric Ambulatory of Londrina State University, Paraná, Brazil. The subjects were interviewed by structured diagnostic criteria categorized according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV, axis I, (SCID-IV). The mean duration of illness in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients was 15.341+/-1.494 years and the median age at onset was 22.4+/-7.371 years. There were no significant differences in gender (P=0.297), age (P=0.99), albumin (P=0.26), and body mass index (kg/m(2)) (p=0.28), among patients, controls, and relatives. Patients and biological relatives had significantly higher positive p24 RNA BDV detection than controls (P=0.04); however, the clinical significance of BDV remains to be clarified.
Asunto(s)
Enfermedad de Borna/virología , Virus de la Enfermedad de Borna/genética , Trastornos Psicóticos/virología , ARN Viral/análisis , Esquizofrenia/virología , Proteínas Virales/genética , Adulto , Enfermedad de Borna/genética , Virus de la Enfermedad de Borna/aislamiento & purificación , Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico de los Trastornos Mentales , Salud de la Familia , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Trastornos Psicóticos/sangre , Esquizofrenia/sangre , Proteínas Virales/sangreRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Borna disease virus (BDV) is a virus that naturally infects a broad range of warm-blooded animals. BDV is an enveloped virus, non-segmented, negative-stranded RNA genome and has an organization characteristic of a member of Bornaviridae in the order of Mononegavirale. In the present work we investigated the presence of BDV p24 RNA in peripheral blood cells from 30 psychiatric patients (19 with mood disorder and 11 with psychotic disorder) and 30 healthy volunteers as the control group. METHODS: All subjects were interviewed by structured diagnostic criteria categorized according to the DSM-IV, Axis I (SCID-V). The presence of BDV p24 RNA was investigated by nested reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) using specific primers to p24 from BDV. The specificity of the detection was analyzed by the sequencing of PCR products. RESULTS: The mean duration of illness in mood and psychotic patients with p24 RNA of BDV was 25 (+/-12.3) years and the median age was 43.77 (+/-15.2) years. There were no significant differences in gender and age among patients and control group, neither duration of illness among patients with mood and psychotic disorders in the presence or absence of p24 RNA of BDV. We found a frequency of 33.33% (10/30) of BDV-RNA on patient's group and 13.33% (4/30) on control group. The given sequences revealed identity with GenBank database sequence for BDV. CONCLUSION: The detection of a higher level of BDV-RNA in the peripheral blood cells of patients than on control group should help our understanding of the pathogenesis in the disease.
Asunto(s)
Enfermedad de Borna/genética , Enfermedad de Borna/virología , Virus de la Enfermedad de Borna/genética , Virus de la Enfermedad de Borna/aislamiento & purificación , Trastornos del Humor/genética , Trastornos del Humor/virología , ARN Viral/genética , Esquizofrenia/genética , Esquizofrenia/virología , Proteínas Virales/genética , Adolescente , Adulto , Enfermedad de Borna/epidemiología , Brasil/epidemiología , Cartilla de ADN/genética , Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico de los Trastornos Mentales , Femenino , Humanos , Leucocitos Mononucleares/virología , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Trastornos del Humor/epidemiología , Prevalencia , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa de Transcriptasa Inversa , Esquizofrenia/epidemiología , Sensibilidad y Especificidad , Análisis de Secuencia de ADNRESUMEN
Borna disease virus (BDV) has been suggested to play a role in the etiology of schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that markers of BDV infection are more frequent in Surinamese immigrants to the Netherlands, diagnosed with schizophrenia, than in Dutch-born healthy subjects. For reasons that are poorly understood there is an increased incidence of schizophrenia in this immigrant group. Blood was obtained from 29 male schizophrenic patients (DSM-IV criteria) and from 26 healthy males. For detection of anti-BDV antibodies an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) was performed. A nested, reverse-transcriptase-PCR, using primers specific for the p24 and p40 BDV genes, was used to determine BDV-RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Contrary to our expectations, the frequencies of BDV markers in the group of healthy subjects, as determined by IFA and both PCRs, exceeded that in the group of patients. The results do not support an association between markers of BDV infection in blood and schizophrenia. It is unlikely that the high incidence of schizophrenia in Surinamese immigrants is caused by BDV, but the small number of subjects examined do not warrant definitive conclusions.