no molecular evidence of borna disease virus among schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients in iran

Background and objectives: viruses have been suggested as one of the risk factors for psychiatric disorders. among infectious agents borna disease virus (bdv) has been known as a neurotropic virus which is able to cause neurological disorders in different animals. recently there were controversial findings about bdv association with pathogenesis of human psychotic disorders. materials and methods: here we performed a nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction for detection of bdv p40 rna in peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples of schizophrenia (sc), bipolar disorder (bd) patients and healthy controls (hcs). results: only one out of 120 (0.8 %) psychiatric patients and two samples (2.7%) in 75 hcs showed positive results. there were no significant molecular evidence of bdv infection in 120 psychotic patients (60 sc and 60 bd) and 75 matched hcs. conclusion: our findings showed no association between bdv infection and pathogenesis of these psychiatric disorders. this is an interesting issue given both the as yet un-clarified role of bdv in human mental disorders and addressing patients in the so far under-investigating middle east era.