DETECTION OF BORNA-DISEASE VIRUS (BDV) ANTIBODIES AND BDV RNA IN PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS - EVIDENCE FOR HIGH SEQUENCE CONSERVATION OF HUMAN BLOOD-DERIVED BDV RNA

In several vertebrate species, Borna disease virus (BDV), the prototyp e of a new group of animal viruses, causes central nervous system dise ase accompanied by diverse behavioral abnormalities. Seroepidemiologic al data indicate that BDV may contribute to the pathophysiology of cer tain human mental disorders. This hypothesis is further supported by t he detection of both BDV antigens and BDV RNA in peripheral blood mono nuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with psychiatric disorders and the i solation of BDV from such PBMCs. Here we describe serological and mole cular epidemiological studies on psychiatric patients and healthy indi viduals from the area of Homburg, Germany. Using a novel Western blot (immunoblot) assay, we found a BDV seroprevalence of 9.6% among 416 ne uropsychiatric patients, which is significantly higher than the 1.4%b found among 203 healthy control individuals. Human sera displayed a pr ominent immunoreactivity against the virus nucleoprotein, the p40 anti gen. Reverse transcriptase-mediated PCR analysis of RNA extracted from PBMCs of a subset of 26 of the neuropsychiatric patients revealed tha t 50% were BDV RNA positive. Three of the 13 BDV RNA-positive patients also had BDV-positive serology, whereas one patient with serum antibo dies to BDV p40 antigen did not harbor detectable BDV RNA in PBMCs. BD V p40 and p24 sequences derived from human PBMCs exhibited both a high degree of inter- and intrapatient conservation and a close genetic re lationship to animal-derived BDV sequences.