Animals ; Borna Disease ; epidemiology ; immunology ; metabolism ; virology ; Borna disease virus ; immunology ; pathogenicity ; Humans

OBJECTIVE: During the last two decades, Borna disease virus (BDV) has received much attention as a possible zoonotic agent, particularly as a cause of psychiatric disease. Although several studies have shown that BDV is present in Asia, BDV has not been detected in Korea. This study was designed to further investigate the presence of BDV infection in Korea. METHODS: Blood samples were taken from 39 race horses and 48 jockeys. Antibody to BDV was detected by indirect immunofluorescence antibody test and RNA of BDV by real time reverse transcriptase PCR (rRT-PCR). RESULTS: No evidence of BDV was detected in either the horses or the jockeys group. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that BDV infection may not be endemic in Korea. Further studies with novel diagnostic tools are required to clarify the prevalence of BDV infection in Korea.
Animals ; Asia ; Borna Disease ; Borna disease virus ; Continental Population Groups ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect ; Horses ; Humans ; Korea ; Prevalence ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA

OBJECTIVE: Borna disease virus (BDV) is a highly neurotropic agent causing various neuropsychiatric symptoms in animals. Over the past two decades, it has been suggested that BDV might be associated with human psychiatric diseases. We aimed to investigate whether BDV is associated with psychiatric patients in Korea. METHODS: We recruited 60 normal controls and 198 psychiatric patients (98 patients with depressive disorder, 60 with schizophrenia, and 40 with bipolar disorder). We used an indirect immunofluorescence antibody (IFA) test for the BDV antibody and a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assay for p24 and p40 RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). RESULTS: Neither the BDV antibody nor p24, p40 RNA was detected in controls and patients groups. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that BDV might not be associated with psychiatric patients in Korea.
Animals ; Borna Disease ; Borna disease virus ; Corynebacterium ; Depressive Disorder ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect ; Humans ; Korea ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA ; Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: Borna disease virus (BDV) is a highly neurotropic agent causing various neuropsychiatric symptoms in animals. Over the past two decades, it has been suggested that BDV might be associated with human psychiatric diseases. We aimed to investigate whether BDV is associated with psychiatric patients in Korea. METHODS: We recruited 60 normal controls and 198 psychiatric patients (98 patients with depressive disorder, 60 with schizophrenia, and 40 with bipolar disorder). We used an indirect immunofluorescence antibody (IFA) test for the BDV antibody and a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assay for p24 and p40 RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). RESULTS: Neither the BDV antibody nor p24, p40 RNA was detected in controls and patients groups. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that BDV might not be associated with psychiatric patients in Korea.
Animals ; Borna Disease ; Borna disease virus ; Corynebacterium ; Depressive Disorder ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect ; Humans ; Korea ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA ; Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVEIn order to investigate the epidemics of borna disease virus (BDV) in Ningxia and its vicinal regions.

METHODSp24 fragment of BDV from: (1) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and cerebrospinal fluid mononuclear cells (CSFMC) from 52 patients with viral encephalitis (VE) and 32 healthy donors, (2) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 53 patients with depressive disorder (DD) and from 360 sheep, were examined by nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(PCR) with fluorescence quantitative PCR. Gene sequence and amino acid sequence were analysed for positive product and the molecular epidemiologic characteristics by drawing phylogenetic trees.

RESULTSThe positive rate of BDV p24 in CSFMC from VE (11.54%) and in PBMC from DD 11.32% was significantly higher than that in healthy donors (0%) (P < 0.05). The phylogenetic trees indicating the genetic relationship of the p24 fragment of BDV in both sheep and VE, DD in China and was similar to the nucleotide sequence of H1766 strain in Germany.

CONCLUSIONData indicated that the BDV infection was possibly existing in VE, DD patients and health sheep in Ningxia and its vicinal regions with confined locality which called for further study.

Animals ; Borna Disease ; epidemiology ; genetics ; Borna disease virus ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; China ; epidemiology ; Depressive Disorder ; virology ; Humans ; Leukocytes, Mononuclear ; virology ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Phylogeny ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sheep

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the prevalence of infection with Borna disease virus (BDV) in Chinese patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and control subjects, and to discuss the etiological association between CFS and infection with BDV.

METHODSThe CDC (1994) diagnostic criteria for CFS were used for case definition. Sixty-one patients suffered from CFS were from 11 Provinces in China. To detect the antibody against BDV-p24 on the plasma samples from all cases and 73 healthy control subjects by Western-blotting analysis.

RESULTS7 of the sixty-one cases and 0 of the controls were sero-positive for BDV-p24 antibody, there was a statistical significant difference between the two groups (11.48% vs 0%; P less than 0.010).

CONCLUSIONChinese patients with CFS showed sero-positive identifying BDV infection, by comparison, anti.BDV-p24 antibody prevalence in patients was significantly higher than in controls. An etiological association may exist between CFS and BDV infection.

Adult ; Antibodies, Viral ; blood ; Blotting, Western ; Borna Disease ; complications ; immunology ; Borna disease virus ; immunology ; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic ; virology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged

BACKGROUNDTo investigate whether Borna disease virus (BDV) infection is related to the schizophrenic patients from China.

METHODSA reliable Western-blot method for detection of BDV-p24 antibody was established by adjusting the reaction conditions of BDV-p24 recombinant protein and specific antibodies. The sera of schizophrenic patients and normal controls from Heilongjiang Province were screened for specific BDV-p24 antibody by this method, and the BDV-p24 antibody positive sera were confirmed by the Western-blot method with sera-GST protein absorption.

RESULTSTen of 116 (8.6%) schizophrenic patients were found to be positive for BDV-p24 specific antibody, while no BDV-p24 specific antibody was found in sera of normal controls.

CONCLUSIONSThe results demonstrate that the Borna disease virus infection also exists in China, and the infection is possibly associated with schizophrenia in some way.

Antibodies, Viral ; blood ; Blotting, Western ; Borna disease virus ; isolation & purification ; Humans ; Schizophrenia ; virology ; Viral Proteins ; immunology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the infection of Borna disease virus (BDV) in unidentified viral encephalitis patients in Ningxia in order to explore if the nucleotide sequence and amino acid sequence in BDV p24 were homophylic with the overseas standard strain. We also intended to investigate the correlation between BDV infection and the unidentified viral encephalitis patients from Ningxia to lay an experimental basis for etiological diagnosis, prevention and treatment on certain human neuropsychiatric disorders.

METHODSBDV p24 gene fragment was detected by nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction with fluorescence quantitative PCR (FQ-nRT-PCR) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Samples were from 59 unidentified viral encephalitis patients and 60 normal controls. For those positive products, gene sequence and amino acid sequence were then analyzed by BLAST and DNAsist 5.0.

RESULTSThe positive rate of the BDV p24 gene fragment in PBMCs from the unidentified viral encephalitis (10.17%) was significantly higher than from the controls (0%) (P < 0.05). Data from the gene sequence on those positive products showed BDV p24 fragment in the patients with unidentified viral encephalitis from Ningxia was homophylic with strain H3915 detected from ill horses (97.67%), as well as with the strain H1766 (96.51%) and strain V (95.35%). However, their amino acid sequences remained the same.

CONCLUSIONBDV infection might probably have existed in the unidentified viral encephalitis patients of Ningxia. The gene sequence seemed to be homophylic with that of standard strain H1766 and strain V, especially with strain H3915.

Adult ; Aged ; Base Sequence ; Borna Disease ; epidemiology ; Borna disease virus ; genetics ; Case-Control Studies ; China ; epidemiology ; Encephalitis, Viral ; blood ; epidemiology ; virology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; RNA, Viral ; genetics