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

Miranda, Helen Cristina; Odebrecht Vargas Nunes, Sandra; Sanches Calvo, Eberson; Suzart, Sérgio; Nakagawa Itano, Eiko; Watanabe, Maria Angelica Ehara

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2005.10.008

« Previous Next »Journal of Affective Disorders
Volume 90, Issue 1 , Pages 43-47, January 2006

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

Helen Cristina Miranda
- Department of Pathological Sciences-Immunology, Londrina State University, Londrina, PR, Brazil
Sandra Odebrecht Vargas Nunes
- Department of Medical Clinic-Psychiatry, Londrina State University, Londrina, PR, Brazil
Eberson Sanches Calvo
- Tropical Melhoramento e Genética Ltda, Cambé, PR, Brazil
Sérgio Suzart
- Department of Microbiology, Londrina State University, Londrina, PR, Brazil
Eiko Nakagawa Itano
- Department of Pathological Sciences-Immunology, Londrina State University, Londrina, PR, Brazil
Maria Angelica Ehara Watanabe
- Department of Pathological Sciences-Immunology, Londrina State University, Londrina, PR, Brazil
- Corresponding author. Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Campus Universitário, Departamento de Ciências Patológicas, Rod. Celso Garcia Cid (PR 445) Km 380, CEP 86051-970, Brazil. Tel./fax: +55 43 3371 5728.

Received 19 May 2005; received in revised form 8 October 2005; accepted 13 October 2005.

Abstract

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.

Conclusion

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.

Keywords: BDV, p24 RNA, Mood and psychotic disorders