Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology Department, The University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey.
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2012 Mar;262(2):173-7. doi: 10.1007/s00406-011-0222-6. Epub 2011 Jul 2.
Association of some neurotropic viruses like Borna Disease virus and Herpes virus with schizophrenia is better explained. However, the role of West Nile virus (WNV) infection in schizophrenia is not well documented. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate possible association between schizophrenia and presence of antibodies and WNV RNA in schizophrenic patients. For this, 200 blood samples from patients with schizophrenia and 200 from control groups were collected in Istanbul, Turkey. WNV RNA was not detected in any of the 200 patients and 200 controls analyzed by real-time RT-PCR. One hundred and twelve sera of schizophrenic patients and 162 of controls were analyzed for the presence of IgG antibodies to WNV by a commercial IgG-ELISA (Euroimmun, Germany). Antibodies to WNV were detected in 6 schizophrenic patients and 5 controls. ELISA positive patients had antipsychotic therapy. The difference between groups in terms of seropositivity to WNV was not statistically significant (p = 0.887, p = 0.148). Known symptoms of schizophrenia were observed in these patients, and interestingly majority had close contact to cats in the past and come from agricultural area of Turkey where potential area of mosquitoes and bird habitat. In conclusion, the results of this study show that antibodies to WNV in people do not seem to be associated with schizophrenia. However, detecting antibodies to WNV in schizophrenic patients suggests that WNV infection should be considered in endemic areas as it may play role in psychiatric diseases.
与精神分裂症相关的一些神经病毒，如博尔纳病病毒和疱疹病毒，其关联已得到更好的解释。然而，西尼罗河病毒（WNV）感染与精神分裂症的关系尚未得到充分证实。因此，本研究旨在调查精神分裂症患者中WNV 感染与抗体和 WNV RNA 存在之间的可能关联。为此，在土耳其伊斯坦布尔收集了 200 名精神分裂症患者和 200 名对照组的血液样本。通过实时 RT-PCR 分析，未在 200 名患者和 200 名对照组中检测到 WNV RNA。通过商业 IgG-ELISA（Euroimmun，德国）分析了 112 份精神分裂症患者和 162 份对照组血清样本中针对 WNV 的 IgG 抗体的存在情况。在 6 名精神分裂症患者和 5 名对照组中检测到了针对 WNV 的抗体。ELISA 阳性患者接受了抗精神病治疗。在针对 WNV 的血清阳性率方面，两组之间没有统计学上的显著差异（p = 0.887，p = 0.148）。这些患者出现了已知的精神分裂症症状，有趣的是，大多数患者过去与猫有密切接触，并且来自土耳其的农业区，那里是蚊子和鸟类栖息地的潜在区域。总之，本研究的结果表明，WNV 抗体在人群中似乎与精神分裂症无关。然而，在精神分裂症患者中检测到针对 WNV 的抗体表明，在流行地区应考虑WNV 感染，因为它可能在精神疾病中发挥作用。
