Borna disease virus and neuropsychiatric disorders

Abstract

Mirella Salvatore and colleagues (June 21, p 1813)1Salvatore M Morzunov S Schwemmle M Lipkin WI and the Bornavirus Study Group.Borna disease virus in brains of North American and European people with schizophrenia and biopolar disorder.Lancet. 1997; 349: 1813-1814Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (90) Google Scholar report the presence of Borna disease virus (BDV) P gene mRNA in postmortem brain samples of patients with schizophrenia and patients with bipolar disorder in North American and European people. P gene transcripts were not found in brain samples of patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, or in any of the controls. Bechter and colleagues2Bechter K Herzog S Schuettler R Borna disease virus—possible cause of human neuropsychiatric disorders.Neurol Psychiatr Brain Res. 1996; 4: 45-52Google Scholar postulated that BDV could be a nonspecific but causal factor for neuropsychiatric disorders on the basis of the seroepidemiology. So the high prevalence and exclusive presence of BDV genome in the necropsy brain samples in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is of considerable interest, de la Torre and colleagues3de la Torre JC Gonzalez-Dunia D Cubitt B et al.Detection of Borna disease virus antigen and RNA in human autopsy brain samples from neuropsychiatric patients.Virology. 1996; 223: 272-282Crossref PubMed Scopus (118) Google Scholar found BDV genome in postmortem hippocampal tissue in four of five patients with hippocampal sclerosis (a disease that manifests dementia) but not in health controls.We and the Japan Bornavirus Study Group have shown BDV P gene mRNA in postmortem brain samples from three of nine Japanese patients with schizophrenia by means of nested reverse-transcription PCR. However, our results differ from these of Salvatore and co-workers in that we also found BDV P genome in two of 31 samples from controls and in one of six patients with Parkinson's disease. Thus, BDV could latently infect normal brain tissue. Further investigations with the nested reverse-transcriptase PCR for BDV genomes of postmortem brain samples from controls and neuropsychiatric patients are needed to clarify the possible contribution of BDV to the pathogenesis of certain mental disorders. Mirella Salvatore and colleagues (June 21, p 1813)1Salvatore M Morzunov S Schwemmle M Lipkin WI and the Bornavirus Study Group.Borna disease virus in brains of North American and European people with schizophrenia and biopolar disorder.Lancet. 1997; 349: 1813-1814Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (90) Google Scholar report the presence of Borna disease virus (BDV) P gene mRNA in postmortem brain samples of patients with schizophrenia and patients with bipolar disorder in North American and European people. P gene transcripts were not found in brain samples of patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, or in any of the controls. Bechter and colleagues2Bechter K Herzog S Schuettler R Borna disease virus—possible cause of human neuropsychiatric disorders.Neurol Psychiatr Brain Res. 1996; 4: 45-52Google Scholar postulated that BDV could be a nonspecific but causal factor for neuropsychiatric disorders on the basis of the seroepidemiology. So the high prevalence and exclusive presence of BDV genome in the necropsy brain samples in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is of considerable interest, de la Torre and colleagues3de la Torre JC Gonzalez-Dunia D Cubitt B et al.Detection of Borna disease virus antigen and RNA in human autopsy brain samples from neuropsychiatric patients.Virology. 1996; 223: 272-282Crossref PubMed Scopus (118) Google Scholar found BDV genome in postmortem hippocampal tissue in four of five patients with hippocampal sclerosis (a disease that manifests dementia) but not in health controls. We and the Japan Bornavirus Study Group have shown BDV P gene mRNA in postmortem brain samples from three of nine Japanese patients with schizophrenia by means of nested reverse-transcription PCR. However, our results differ from these of Salvatore and co-workers in that we also found BDV P genome in two of 31 samples from controls and in one of six patients with Parkinson's disease. Thus, BDV could latently infect normal brain tissue. Further investigations with the nested reverse-transcriptase PCR for BDV genomes of postmortem brain samples from controls and neuropsychiatric patients are needed to clarify the possible contribution of BDV to the pathogenesis of certain mental disorders.