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

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders Vol. 90; no. 1; pp. 43 - 47
• Main Authors: Miranda, Helen Cristina, Odebrecht Vargas Nunes, Sandra, Sanches Calvo, Eberson, Suzart, Sérgio, Nakagawa Itano, Eiko, Watanabe, Maria Angelica Ehara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 2006; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; BDV; Biological and medical sciences; Borna Disease - epidemiology; Borna Disease - genetics; Borna Disease - virology; Borna disease virus - genetics; Borna disease virus - isolation & purification; Brazil - epidemiology; Depression; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; DNA Primers - genetics; Female; Humans; Leukocytes, Mononuclear - virology; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mood and psychotic disorders; Mood disorders; Mood Disorders - epidemiology; Mood Disorders - genetics; Mood Disorders - virology; p24 RNA; Prevalence; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Viral - genetics; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - epidemiology; Schizophrenia - genetics; Schizophrenia - virology; Sensitivity and Specificity; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Viral Proteins - genetics; Brazil; BDV; Mood and psychotic disorders; p24 RNA; Bornavirus; Human; Mood disorder; Schizoaffective psychosis; Prevalence; RNA; Depression; Male; Epidemiology; Bornaviridae; Infection; Virus; Psychosis; Mononegavirales; Blood cell; Viral disease; Female; Borna disease; Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2005.10.008

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. 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. 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. 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.