Retrovirus Related to Schizophrenia
May 15, 2001
Schizophrenia, a neuropsychiatric disorder that affects almost one in every one hundred people in America, is the subject of much research. Doctors and scientists are anxious to discover what causes the disease and how to stop it. A new study from Johns Hopkins Children's Center states that a virus may play a part in some cases of schizophrenia. Neurovirologist Robert Yolken, M.D. and his fellow researchers have found that in almost 30 percent of patients diagnosed with acute schizophrenia and almost 7 percent of patients with chronic schizophrenia, there exists a molecular "footprint" of a retrovirus in the cerebrospinal fluid. While many people have some level of retrovirus in their cerebrospinal fluid, the level of retrovirus found in schizophrenia patients is much higher.
The footprint is retroviral RNA that comes from the active expression of an endogenous retrovirus in the "W" family of endogenous retroviruses (HERV-W). Initially, researchers felt that some forms of schizophrenia were caused by both genetic and environmental factors.
Endogenous retroviruses are linked to the human genome. Researchers are still trying to find out how retroviruses are involved with human diseases. Scientists can now use this information with the newly obtained data to try to find ways to stop the retrovirus from becoming active in patients, thus possibly preventing some forms of schizophrenia.
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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