Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0036341 (schizophrenia)
 60,220 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cytomegalovirus infection has a number of features that suggest a possible association between congenital infection and schizophrenia. Previous studies have investigated anticytomegalovirus antibody titers or attempted directly to identify viral antigens in body fluids or brain tissue from schizophrenic subjects but have been limited by the sensitivity of the available methods. The highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction, a newly developed technique for gene amplification, was used to search for cytomegalovirus in the DNA extracted from postmortem temporal cortex samples of eight schizophrenic subjects, eight nonschizophrenic suicide victims, and eight normal controls. Cytomegalovirus-specific DNA amplification was not detected in any of the samples. The implications of this finding for the viral hypothesis of schizophrenia are discussed.
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PMID:Search for cytomegalovirus in the postmortem brains of schizophrenic patients using the polymerase chain reaction. 130 17

Nine female and 6 male adolescents (mean age 14.5 +/- 1.7 [SD] years) were evaluated for chronic fatigue associated with at least three additional symptoms present for 18.4 +/- 8.4 months. Eleven subjects experienced the onset of symptoms with an acute illness (seven Monospot-positive). Medical history, physical examination, and laboratory testing yielded little helpful information. Serologic testing for Coxsackie B viruses 1 through 6, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus 6, and Toxoplasma gondii in subjects and healthy controls provided little evidence for an infectious cause of persistent fatigue. Children's Depression Inventory scores and psychiatric interviews with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Children's Version (K-SADS) identified five subjects with major depression. On the K-SADS, the 10 fatigued subjects without major depression endorsed many secondary symptoms of depression but were less likely than depressed psychiatric clinic patients to endorse primary symptoms such as depressed mood, guilt, and suicidality. At telephone follow-up 13 to 32 months after intake, 4 subjects were completely well, 4 markedly improved, and 7 unimproved or worse. Further research is necessary to determine whether chronic fatigue in adolescents is prodromal depression, a discrete psychosomatic condition, or an infectious or immunologic disorder that mimics depression.
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PMID:Chronic fatigue in adolescents. 841 93

In one of the hypotheses on the causes of schizophrenia it is proposed that viruses may play a role in the etiology and pathogenesis of at least some forms of schizophrenia. In our study, 30 healthy adults and 30 schizophrenic patients were investigated for humoral and cellular immunity against herpes simplex virus (HSV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV). A whole blood test system with several advantages over commonly used procedures was used to study cell-mediated immunity to CMV and HSV. Our data showed no difference between serum antibody levels or cellular immunity of the schizophrenic patients and control individuals as far as HSV and CMV were tested. Serum interferon may be indicative for the presence of a yet unidentified virus. Therefore, we tested interferon levels in the serum of patients. No interferon was detected in any of the samples tested. Further, we tested the activity of natural killer (NK) cells in the blood of schizophrenic patients and controls. NK-activity of the patients' blood cells was not different from that of normal donors.
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PMID:Studies of cellular immunity, serum interferon titers, and natural killer cell activity in schizophrenic patients. 242 10

Using highly sensitive nucleic acids hybridization techniques, which allow the detection of 0.1-0.5 single copy gene equivalents per cell, DNA from the temporal cortex of seven definite schizophrenics, five persons with schizophrenia-like psychoses, three patients with Huntington's chorea and nine mentally normal individuals were probed with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) DNA. A clear hybridization signal was obtained with DNA from the temporal lobe of a young schizophrenic patient, whereas DNA from the temporal cortex of controls did not hybridize to the HCMV probe. This finding is in agreement with the cytomegalovirus hypothesis of schizophrenia and hints at the possibility that viral infection of the temporal cortex may in some sporadic cases be a contributing factor to the development of schizophrenic psychoses. There is no indication, however, that infection of the central nervous system with HCMV is an aetiological factor in the great majority of schizophrenic disorders. Clearly further studies, preferably in situ hybridizations of whole brains, are needed to prove or disprove the cytomegalovirus hypothesis of schizophrenia.
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PMID:Human cytomegalovirus DNA in the temporal cortex of a schizophrenic patient. 285 Jan 88

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 20 chronically hospitalised male schizophrenics and from 12 patients admitted with acute schizophrenia were examined for antibodies against cytomegalovirus. A sensitive and specific enzyme-immunoassay was used to detect IgG or IgM classes of antibodies in the CSF of the schizophrenic patients and of ten orthopaedic patients, who served as controls. No significant amounts of IgM antibody were found in the CSF of either group. A significant titre of IgG was found in only one of the 32 schizophrenics, an acute patient, but in four of the orthopaedic patients. The results do not support an association of cytomegalovirus infection with schizophrenia; if such an association occurs, it must be unusual.
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PMID:Cytomegalovirus and schizophrenia. A test of a viral hypothesis. 299 Jun 26

DNA was extracted from the brains of patients with Alzheimer-type dementia, schizophrenia, Huntington's chorea and from patients without neurological disease, and examined for the presence of herpes simplex virus type 1 and human cytomegalovirus sequences. By selecting cloned virus DNA fragments which do not hybridize to normal human DNA we were able to achieve a detection level assessed on reconstruction experiments of 1 virus genome per 50 cells. Screening at such sensitivity did not detect virus sequences in the higher CNS, except in cases of encephalitis or immunosuppression. We conclude that, at this level of sensitivity, these viruses cannot be regarded as normal residents of the higher CNS, and at the time of death they do not appear to be associated with these neuropsychiatric conditions.
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PMID:Viruses in human brains: a search for cytomegalovirus and herpes virus 1 DNA in necropsy tissue from normal and neuropsychiatric cases. 301 88

Antibodies to cytomegalovirus (CMV) were determined in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by complement-fixing (CF), enzyme immunoassay (EIA), and enhanced virus neutralization test (EVNT), in acute unmedicated schizophrenic patients and neurological controls. An elevated level of CF antibody was observed in three serum specimens from the schizophrenic patients and in one control specimen. No CF antibody was present in the CSF samples of the two patient groups tested. By EIA none of the serum or CSF specimens was positive for IgM antibody to CMV. By EVNT, 17% of the schizophrenic patients exhibited a CSF/serum ratio greater than 2 SD, whereas the corresponding figure for the control group was 4% (P greater than 0.05). The role of CMV in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia is discussed in the light of the present and previous negative findings.
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PMID:Serum and cerebrospinal fluid antibodies to cytomegalovirus in schizophrenia. 301 89

Serum antibody titres to herpes-simplex (HSV-1, 2), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Epstein-Barr virus capsid antigen (EBV-VCA) were determined in 38 unrelated chronic schizophrenic patients, 11 nuclear families with at least 2 schizophrenic members, and 2 control groups. The distributions of antibody titres to herpes simplex and cytomegalovirus were similar among all groups. Patients had higher anti-EBV-VCA titres than non-hospitalized controls; however, hospital staff members in contact with the patients also had significantly higher antibody titres to EBV-VCA. Antibodies to EBV early antigen (EBV-EA) were also determined for 27 unrelated patients and 24 mental hospital employees. The schizophrenic patients had significantly higher antibody titres to EBV-EA than the hospital worker control group. These data do not support the hypothesis that herpes viruses are associated with the aetiology of schizophrenia. Although elevated anti-EBV early antigen titres may suggest persistent active EBV infection, it is unlikely to be related to the aetiology of the disorder, since discordance for EBV seropositivity was present among sibling pairs concordant for schizophrenia.
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PMID:Herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus antibody titres in sera from schizophrenic patients. 302 88

Molecular hybridisation has been used to screen several areas of post mortem brain from 20 patients with schizophrenia, 23 individuals who were suspected of having committed suicide and 21 control cases, for viral nucleic acids. Cloned probes were able to detect picogram levels of viral DNA and to quantify herpes simplex type 1 DNA from encephalitic brain, but no sequences hybridising to cytomegalovirus, varicella zoster virus, herpes simplex type I or JC or BK papovaviruses were detected in any of the experimental samples. These findings are discussed with reference to the viral hypothesis of the aetiology of psychiatric disease.
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PMID:Search for viral nucleic acid sequences in the post mortem brains of patients with schizophrenia and individuals who have committed suicide. 303 Dec 19

Distribution of antibodies to herpes simplex type 1 (HSV1), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV) and measles virus (MV) was studied in sera and cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) of 41 patients with schizophrenia, 27 patients with primary affective disorders and 25 control patients with neurological diseases. No significant differences in distribution and mean geometric titers (GMT) of antibodies to HSV1 between the psychiatric and control groups were found. Distribution and GMT of antibodies to EBV were highly significant in psychiatric patients as compared to controls with highest titers in the affective disorder group. Antibodies to HSV1 were present in 15 CSF specimens of psychiatric patients with reduced CSF/serum ratio in 4, and low levels of antibodies were detected in 8 control patients. Antibodies to EBV-VCA were detected in 4 CSFs of psychiatric patients. Total protein levels were determined in CSF specimens and no correlation with antibodies was found. No significant differences in distribution of antibodies to CMV or MV in the three study groups were found. No antibodies to CMV were demonstrated in CSFs and in one specimen from a patient and two controls antibodies to MV were detected.
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PMID:Antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex type 1, cytomegalovirus and measles virus in psychiatric patients. 626 28


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