Detection of Borna disease virus p24 RNA in peripheral blood cells from Brazilian mood and psychotic disorder patients.
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Miranda
Helen Cristina
HC
Department of Pathological Sciences-Immunology, Londrina State University, Londrina, PR, Brazil.
Nunes
Sandra Odebrecht Vargas
SO
Calvo
Eberson Sanches
ES
Suzart
Sérgio
S
Itano
Eiko Nakagawa
EN
Watanabe
Maria Angelica Ehara
MA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001890:Borna Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D001891:Borna disease virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
D017931:DNA Primers; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins; C084757:p24 protein, Borna disease virus