No association of borna disease virus with psychiatric disorders among patients in northern Kyushu, Japan.

There is controversy over the prevalence of Borna disease virus (BDV) antibodies and its RNA in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of psychiatric patients, and the contribution of BDV to human psychiatric disorders. We examined 299 plasma and 229 PBMC samples. No plasma samples were positive for BDV-p40, p24 or gp18 antibodies by western blot analysis. The prevalence of BDV RNA in the psychiatric (schizophrenic) patients (1.8%) was not significantly different from that in the healthy volunteers (0.6%). The nucleotide sequences of BDV p40 and p24 were highly conserved with those of BDV He/80. Our results suggested that there is a lack of association between BDV infection and psychiatric disorders among the patients in Northern Kyushu, Japan. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.