High seroprevalence of borna disease virus infection in Chinese schizophrenic patients in Hong Kong

Abstract

Borna Disease Virus (BDV) has been implicated in the aetiology of schizophrenia. We conducted the first seroepidemiological study in Hong Kong to investigate the relation of BDV infection and schizophrenia. Eighty-six Hong Kong Chinese patients with schizophrenia were recruited from a local psychiatric center. Two hundred and fifty-two healthy participants were recruited from the general public as controls. We found higher BDV seroprevalence of patients than controls by using both Western blot assay (10.5% vs 1.2%, OR = 9.7, 95% CI = 2.3±46.5, p < 0.001) and immunofluorescence assay (7.0% vs 1.2%, OR = 6.2, 95% CI = 1.4±32.2, p =. 0.01). The Western blot assay performed using purified virus detected antibodies against one or more BDV proteins p16, p40, p56 and p84. This finding provides some evidence for high seroprevalence of IgG anti-BDV in schizophrenic patients. The seroprevalence of both patients and healthy persons in Hong Kong are comparable with those reported from other countries. Hong Kong is a city with dense population and close contact with animals is very rare for the residence. Our findings suggest that animal contact may not be necessary for BDV transmission. Further studies concerning the pathophysiological mechanism of BDV in causing schizophrenia is important.