Detection of Boma disease virus genome in autopsy brains among people with psychiatric disoders

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Boma disease virus (BDV), a highly neurotropic virus naturally infects horses and sheep, has been implicated as one of the causative agents for human psyhciatric disorders by the seropeidemiology. To address this possibility, we examined autopsy brain samples from people with psychiatric disorders by means of a highly sensitive nested RT-PCR method for BDV p24, p40 and p10.BDV p24 and p40 PCR products were detected in three cases of 17 brains (frontal and temporal cortices, hippocampus, and olfactory bulb) of people with schizophrenia and one case of 19 control brains. However, BDV p10 PCR produtcs were not found in all the cases. Next, we examined 60 autopsy brains (frontal and temporal cortices) from 45 people with psychiatric disorders and 15 controls, that were provided by the Stanley Foundation Brain Bank Among 120 samples, no PCR products were found for p24 and p40 mRNAs. Given the apparent discordance between our two stuideis, we reexamined brain tissues from 44 people with schizophrenia and 50 controls in a mulitcenter, blinded manner using a collection of total RNA samples prepared in our institute. Three research institutes that participated in the examination gave a similar results with a few positive cases both for p24 and p40. However, p10 PCR products were not obatined in these positive samples, and the sequencing of the PCR products revealed that the products were almost identical with those obtained from the plasmids containing p24 or p40 cDNA that were used in our laboratory. Thus, it is most likely that our initial resutls were pseudopositive, the situation being presumably brought about by the laboratory contamination. Nevertheless, this kind of study should be continued further, with special cautions for contamination.