title: Borna disease virus in human brains with a rare form of hippocampal degeneration but not in brains of patients with common neuropsychiatric disorders.
abstract: To estimate the frequency of persistent Borna disease virus (BDV) infections of the human central nervous system and to determine which neuropsychiatric disorders might be associated with this viral infection, reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction was used to screen a large collection of autopsy brain samples for the presence of BDV-specific nucleic acids. The presence of BDV RNA was found in 3 brains of persons with psychiatric symptoms and prominent hippocampal degeneration previously reported to be positive by others. However, no BDV RNA was detected in 86 randomly collected brains from persons with various psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, affective disorders, and Alzheimer's disease, or from suicide victims or in 52 brains from healthy controls. Furthermore, no BDV-RNA was detected in 16 surgical brain samples from persons with epilepsy-associated hippocampal sclerosis. These results indicate that life-long persistent BDV infections are rare in humans and that such infections may be associated with certain forms of hippocampal degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Virologie, Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologieand Hygiene, and Abteilung Psychiatrie, Universität Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Czygan
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hallensleben
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hofer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pollak
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sauder
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bilzer
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Blümcke
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Riederer
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bogerts
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Falkai
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Masliah
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Staeheli
authors.forename: F T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Hufert
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lieb
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001890:Borna Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000821:virology; D001891:Borna disease virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001921:Brain / Q000821:virology*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000821:virology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000821:virology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012598:Sclerosis
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral