Isolation of Borna disease virus from human brain tissue

Serological and molecular epidemiological studies indicate that Borna disea se virus (BDV) can infect humans and is possibly associated with certain ne uropsychiatric disorders. We examined brain tissue collected at autopsy fro m four schizophrenic patients and two healthy controls for the presence of BDV markers in 12 different brain regions. BDV RNA and antigen was detected in four brain regions of a BDV-seropositive schizophrenic patient (P2) wit h a very recent (2 years) onset of disease. BDV markers exhibited a regiona lly localized distribution. BDV RNA was found in newborn Mongolian gerbils intracranially inoculated with homogenates from BDV-positive brain regions of P2. Human oligodendroglia (OL) cells inoculated with brain homogenates f rom BDV-positive gerbils allowed propagation and isolation of BDVHuP2br, a human brain-derived BDV Virus isolation was also possible by transfection o f Vero cells with ribonucleoprotein complexes prepared from BDV-positive hu man and gerbil brain tissues. BDVHuP2br was genetically closely related to but distinct from previously reported human- and animal-derived BDV sequenc es.