Detection of Borna Disease Virus (BDV) in Patients with First Episode of Schizophrenia

Objective: Schizophrenia is a complex widespread neuropsychiatric disorder. This illness encompasses a complex debilitating mental disorder causing illusion, delusion, disturbed relationship, low motivation and decline of emotion. Viral infection of the brain including Borna Disease Virus (BDV) may play a role in transient or permanent neurological and behavioral abnormalities. This role of Borna virus has not been resolved outright yet, and based on published papers investigation examining the role of this virus in schizophrenia is in progress worldwide. Method: In this study, Nested Reverse Transcription–Polymerase Chain Reaction (Nested RT-PCR) was used for detection of BDV Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) of a group of patients experiencing the first episode of schizophrenia. The results were compared with a normal group. Results: In our study, no BDV-positive was found in PBMCs of the case group. Out of 40 participants of control group one was positive for P24 gene of BDV. This result are similar to several published papers about this topic. Conclusion: An etiological relationship between Bornavirus and schizophrenia was not found in this study. More investigations are warranted to illustrate the probable relationship between bornavirus infection and schizophrenia.