Abstract
BackgroundBorna disease virus (BDV) is an evolutionary old RNA virus, which infects brain and blood cells of humans, their primate ancestors, and other mammals. Human infection has been correlated to mood disorders and schizophrenia, but the impact of BDV on mental-health still remains controversial due to poor methodological and cross-national comparability.MethodThis first report from the Middle East aimed to determine BDV infection prevalence in Iranian acute psychiatric disorder patients and healthy controls through circulating immune complexes (CIC), antibodies (Ab) and antigen (pAg) in blood plasma using a standardized triple enzyme immune assay (EIA). Samples of 314 subjects (114 psychiatric cases, 69 blood donors, and 131 healthy controls) were assayed and data analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.ResultsCICs revealed a BDV prevalence of one third (29.5%) in healthy Iranian controls (27.5% controls; 33.3% blood donors). In psychiatric patients CIC prevalence was higher than in controls (40.4%) and significantly correlating with bipolar patients exhibiting overt clinical symptoms (p = 0.005, OR = 1.65). CIC values were significantly elevated in bipolar (p = 0.001) and major depressive disorder (p = 0.029) patients as compared to controls, and in females compared to males (p = 0.031).ConclusionThis study supports a similarly high prevalence of subclinical human BDV infections in Iran as reported for central Europe, and provides again an indication for the correlation of BDV infection and mood disorders. Further studies should address the morbidity risk for healthy carriers and those with elevated CIC levels, along with gender disparities.
Highlights
Borna disease virus (BDV) is an evolutionary old RNA virus, which infects brain and blood cells of humans, their primate ancestors, and other mammals
In psychiatric patients circulating immune complexes (CIC) prevalence was higher than in controls (40.4%) and significantly correlating with bipolar patients exhibiting overt clinical symptoms (p = 0.005, odds ratios (OR) = 1.65)
CIC values were significantly elevated in bipolar (p = 0.001) and major depressive disorder (p = 0.029) patients as compared to controls, and in females compared to males (p = 0.031)
Summary
Borna disease virus (BDV) is an evolutionary old RNA virus, which infects brain and blood cells of humans, their primate ancestors, and other mammals. A role of BDV, whatsoever, in human mental-health remained controversial, despite of predominantly supportive reports [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24]. This is mainly due to a great variation in prevalence results largely caused by methodological disparities, due to different antibody and/or RNA techniques, affecting as well crossnational comparability. Evidence for a contribution of BDV infection to disease symptoms has recently been reviewed [32]
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