Borna disease virus in human brains with a rare form of hippocampal degeneration but not in brains of patients with common neuropsychiatric disorders

To estimate the frequency of persistent Borna disease virus (BDV) infection s of the human central nervous system and to determine which neuropsychiatr ic disorders might be associated with this viral infection, reverse transcr iption-nested polymerase chain reaction was used to screen a large collecti on of autopsy brain samples for the presence of BDV-specific nucleic acids. The presence of BDV RNA was found in 3 brains of persons with psychiatric symptoms and prominent hippocampal degeneration previously reported to be p ositive by others. However, no BDV RNA was detected in 86 randomly collecte d brains from persons with various psychiatric disorders, including schizop hrenia, affective disorders, and Alzheimer's disease, or from suicide victi ms or in 52 brains from healthy controls. Furthermore, no BDV-RNA was detec ted in 16 surgical brain samples from persons with epilepsy-associated hipp ocampal sclerosis, These results indicate that life-long persistent BDV inf ections are rare in humans and that such infections may be associated with certain forms of hippocampal degeneration.