Bode L, Ferszt R, Czech G
Robert Koch-Institute, Department of Virology, Free University Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany.
Arch Virol Suppl. 1993;7:159-67. doi: 10.1007/978-3-7091-9300-6_13.
Borna Disease virus (BDV) can persistently infect the central nervous system of a broad spectrum of animal species. The clinical course varies from slight behavioral disturbances to a fatal neurological syndrome. In-vivo diagnosis is based on the strong humoral immune response to BDV antigens. Since also human infections could be confirmed by specific antibodies and increased seroprevalence was found in patients with chronic neurologic or immunologic disorders, the contribution of BDV or a BDV-like human variant to syndromes with yet unknown etiology became of great interest. We presented the first data of a current follow-up study on 70 psychiatric patients who were tested three times each after hospitalization. In contrast to previously found low prevalence of antibody carriers by screening (2-4%), we now found 20% positives by follow-up testing. Furthermore, of the randomly selected patients with different psychiatric diagnosis, the highest proportion of antibody carriers was detected among patients with major depression (more than 30%), compared to only 8% among patients with dysthymia (neurotic depression). This led us to hypothesize that Bornavirus infection might contribute somehow to the syndrome of major depressive illness by altering neuronal cells in the limbic system.
博尔纳病病毒（BDV）可持久感染多种动物物种的中枢神经系统。临床病程从轻微行为紊乱到致命性神经综合征不等。体内诊断基于对BDV抗原的强烈体液免疫反应。由于人类感染也可通过特异性抗体得到证实，并且在患有慢性神经或免疫疾病的患者中发现血清阳性率升高，因此BDV或类似BDV的人类变体对病因不明的综合征的作用引起了极大关注。我们展示了一项针对70名精神病患者的当前随访研究的首批数据，这些患者在住院后每人接受了三次检测。与之前通过筛查发现的抗体携带者低患病率（2%-4%）相比，我们现在通过随访检测发现阳性率为20%。此外，在随机选择的患有不同精神疾病诊断的患者中，重度抑郁症患者中抗体携带者的比例最高（超过30%），而心境恶劣障碍（神经症性抑郁症）患者中仅为8%。这使我们推测，博尔纳病毒感染可能通过改变边缘系统中的神经元细胞，以某种方式导致重度抑郁疾病综合征。
