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Schizophrenia and Borna Disease Virus as a Zoonosis? |
There have long been suspicions that animal viruses are involved
in the pathogenesis of certain human neurologic diseases.
- Murine and human coronaviruses have been implicated in multiple
sclerosis (MS).
- There is serologic evidence for canine distemper virus (CDV)
in MS patients (although CDV and measles virus are antigenically
related, so???) and evidence for CDV Ag in the brain of an encephalitic
monkey who was CDV sero (+) and measles sero (-) (Vet. Microbiol.
20:193, 1989).
- There is also some controversy as to whether influenza virus
infection during pregnancy may play a role in the development
of schizophrenia, based on data following the 1957 worldwide
influenza pandemic.
The most recent agent of interest is Borna disease virus. Borna
disease virus (BDV) is a (-) sense, highly neurotropic RNA virus.
It is primarily a pathogen of sheep and horses, in which it targets
the limbic system and hypothalamus, causing a polioencephalomyelitis.
- The clinical disease, first described in Germany in the 17th-19th
centuries, is associated with profound behavioral changes, and
it was these behavioral changes that first suggested that BDV
might be etiologically related to schizophrenia in humans. It
has also been detected on a much more limited basis in donkeys,
cattle, rabbits, ostriches, a dog and cats.
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Borna disease virus topics |
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