[Detection of Borna disease virus-p24 specific antibody in the sera of schizophrenic patients of China by means of Western-blot].
BACKGROUND
To investigate whether Borna disease virus (BDV) infection is related to the schizophrenic patients from China.


METHODS
A reliable Western-blot method for detection of BDV-p24 antibody was established by adjusting the reaction conditions of BDV-p24 recombinant protein and specific antibodies. The sera of schizophrenic patients and normal controls from Heilongjiang Province were screened for specific BDV-p24 antibody by this method, and the BDV-p24 antibody positive sera were confirmed by the Western-blot method with sera-GST protein absorption.


RESULTS
Ten of 116 (8.6%) schizophrenic patients were found to be positive for BDV-p24 specific antibody, while no BDV-p24 specific antibody was found in sera of normal controls.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate that the Borna disease virus infection also exists in China, and the infection is possibly associated with schizophrenia in some way.
Yang
Ai-ying
AY
Department of Microbiology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, China.
Zhang
Feng-min
FM
Li
Jun-hui
JH
Li
Gui-mei
GM
Ma
Pei-lin
PL
Gu
Hong-xi
HX
Ikuta
Kazuyoshi
K
D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001891:Borna disease virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000821:virology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000276:immunology*
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins; C084757:p24 protein, Borna disease virus