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schizophrenia

HERV-W and Schizophrenia


HERV-W and Schizophrenia
"Schizophrenia remains poorly understood, but is almost certainly an umbrella term covering a range of conditions with a number of common symptoms."


A study by a team from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore tested both diagnosed schizophrenics, and healthy volunteers for traces of the retrovirus.

They found an "unexpectedly" high level of the retroviral traces in cerebrospinal fluid taken from the schizophrenics, compared to very little in the other study subjects.

The findings were reported in the journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
However, other retroviruses, called endogenous retroviruses, perpetuate themselves by mixing their code with the cells that are part of the "germ line".

It can then be passed down to offspring, be present in every cell in their body, then proceed onwards down through the generations.

Through mutations, most of these retroviruses become inactivated over this huge period, although a few retain - or regain - some form of activity, and can produce the RNA which has been detected by these experiments.

The scientists found the distinct RNA signature of an endogenous retrovirus called HERV-W in the DNA of 29% of schizophrenia patients with the acute form the disease, and 7% of those with the chronic form.

Dr Robert Yolken, from Johns Hopkins, said: "While a low level of retrovirus expression occurs in most human tissues, we found an unexpectedly high level of expression in the cerebrospinal fluids of individuals who'd had a recent onset of schizophrenia.

"While our report doesn't explain why the retrovirus becomes active in the first place, it presents clues as to what may happen when it does become active.

Retroviral RNA identified in the cerebrospinal fluids and brains of individuals with schizophrenia
Hakan Karlsson, Silke Bachmann, Johannes Schröder, Justin McArthur, E. Fuller Torrey, and Robert H. Yolken

Human Endogenous Retrovirus Expression Profiles in Samples from Brains of Patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders
Oliver Frank, Michelle Giehl, Chun Zheng, Rüdiger Hehlmann, Christine Leib-Mosch, and Wolfgang Seifarth1nnes Schroder, Justin McArthur, E. Fuller Torrey, and Robert H. Yolken