Hepatitis C found in cerebral lining linked to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder

ABSTRACT: Researchers have discovered the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the cerebral lining of individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which suggests a possible link between infection and psychiatric symptoms. The study found VHC specifically in the Coroideo plexus, a structure that produces cerebrospinal fluid, but not inside the brain tissue.

The analysis of medical records confirmed a higher prevalence of the HCV in these disorders compared to the controls and major depression. The findings increase the hope that antiviral treatments can relieve symptoms for some patients.

Key facts:

The VHC was detected in the brain lining, not the brain tissue, of people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. People with these disorders were 7 times more likely to have HCV than healthy controls. Infection in the cerebral lining the altered gene expression in the brain regions related to memory.

Source: Ju

The studies of observation of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression have linked viral infections with behavioral symptoms in these disorders, but scientists have not been able to find direct evidence of suspicious viruses in the brain.

Experts say it is possibly because viruses may not enter directly into the brain, but can point to brain coating.

After testing that idea using postmortem human brain samples and electronic medical records of 285 million patients, a team of medical scientists Johns Hopkins says that such evidence has found in the form of hepatitis that lady in the liver, the hepatitis C virus in the choir of the human brain, a collection of cells that make up the brain of the brain of the brain of the brain fluid, or ventricols or ventricols, and, notably, produce the brain flés and the brain.

A report on the study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, published on July 14 in translation psychiatry.

The Findings Confirm Prior Studies That reported Higher Than usual Hepatitis C (HCV) Prevalence in People with Schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and suggest that hcv HCV infections may be associated with the cause of desigra According to the Johns Hopkins Team Led By Sarven Sabunciyan, Ph.D., to Neuroscientist at The Children’s Center and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The Johns Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hopkins.

For the study, the team first analyzed postmortem brain choir of individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression, as well as not affected controls.

The samples were obtained from the Stanley Medical Research Institute collection, a widely used postmortum repository of brain tissue of people with mental health disorders.

They then carried out the high performance sequencing using the TWIST comprehensive viral research panel, a commercial technology that allows the identification of more than 3,000 viruses in human samples.

Because the previous psychiatric disorder studies had not been able to identify virus inside the brain, researchers specifically focused on the Coroideo plexus, which is known as a structure directed by virus. The analysis revealed the presence of several viruses in the Coroideo plexus.

The researchers found that more viruses were present in samples of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. But, unlike other viruses, HCC was only present in the brain lining of people who had schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

In particular, the virus was not present in some people who knew that they had a chronic diagnosis of HCV, which suggests that the infection does not always spread to the brain coating.

VHC infection is common, generally contracted through infected blood and characterized by the inflammation of the liver that can lead to serious complications and even death.

It is estimated that 50 million people have chronic VHC infections worldwide, with approximately 1 million new infections every year. About 50% to 75% of cases have no symptoms. Infections are treatable with antiviral medications.

It is estimated that bipolar disorder, characterized by episodes of manic behavior and severe depression, has affected approximately 9 of every 200 adults in the US. UU. At some point in their lives, while schizophrenia, marked by disorganized thinking and hallucinations, and related psychotic disorders are estimated to affect between 1 and 3 in 400 adults in the US in the US in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States in the United States.

During the next phase of the study, the research team analyzed the electronic health records held by Trinetx, and discovered that HCC was documented in 3.6% of those with schizophrenia and 3.9% of those with bipolar disorder, almost double those of those with major (1.8%) depression and approximately seven times more than the control population (0.5%).

Researchers say that while illicit drug consumption is common among people with the three disorders, drug use did not explain the highest prevalence of HCV in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder compared to major depression.

The team also sought viral RNA in the hippocampus data sequence, a region of the brain that supports learning, memory and other functions, of the subjects identified to have HCV, and discovered that the virus was absent in this tissue despite being present in the cerebral coating.

However, the presence of VHC in the cerebral lining altered gene expression in the hippocampus, providing a possible mechanism by which an infection in the lining can affect the functions and behavior of the brain.

While researchers warn that their study does not suggest that all people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder have a HCV infection, they believe that their findings provide convincing support for the existence of the virus in the Coroideo plexus.

“Our findings show that it is possible that some people have psychiatric symptoms because they have an infection, and since hepatitis C infection is treatable, it is possible that this subset of the patient is treated with antiviral medications and does not have to deal with psychiatric symptoms,” says Sabunciyan.

He says that he also hopes to collaborate with mental health professionals to detect HCC in people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia to know whether to deal with infection will relieve or stop symptoms.

Together with Sabunciyan, the authors of the Johns Hopkins University Faculty are Ashwin Balagopal, Ou Chen and Jeffrey Quinn. Maree Webster of the Stanley Medical Research Institute was also co -author.

Financing: This study was financed by subsidies from Stanley Medical Research Institute.

No authors declared conflicts of interest under the policies of the Faculty of Medicine of the Johns Hopkins University.

On this mental health and neuroscience research news

Author: Kim Polyniak
Source: Ju
Contact: Kim Polyniak – Jhu
Image: The image is accredited to Neuroscience News

Original research: open access.
“Viral RNA association in the Coroid Plexus with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and evidence of the affectation of the hepatitis C virus in neuropathology” by Sarven Sabunciyan et al. Translational psychiatry

Abstract

Viral RNA association in the Coroid Plexus with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and evidence of the affectation of the hepatitis C virus in neuropathology

Many epidemiological studies have demonstrated an association between infectious agents, particularly viruses and psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia.

However, no evidence of a viral infection has been found in the brain that is associated with schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar (BPD) disorder and major depression (MDD). A potential reason for this discrepancy may be that viruses are more likely to infect neuroepitelium than neural tissue.

To test this hypothesis, we use viral sequence enrichment technology and perform RNA sequencing in the Postmortem Coroideo Plexus (CP) isolated from 84 SCZ, 73 BPD, 23 MDD and 76 not affected controls (CNT) of the brain collection of the Stanley Medical Research Institute.

This approach allowed us to identify the presence of 13 viral species on the 46 -subject PC. We discover that CP samples collected from subjects with SCZ and BPD are more likely to contain viral sequences. In terms of individual viruses, the hepatitis C (HCV) virus was the only viral species that reached the statistical importance threshold for an association with SCZ and BPD.

Therefore, we focus on VHC to characterize the association between psychiatric disorders and viruses. The analysis of the Electronic Health Registries Trinetx with data on 285 million patients revealed that the prevalence of chronic HCV was 3.6 and 3.9 percent in SCZ and BPD populations, respectively.

The prevalence of chronic HCV in these populations was almost double that was observed for MDD (1.8%) and approximately 7 times greater than the control population (0.5%).

These findings confirm previous studies that report a higher prevalence of the HCV in SCZ and BPD and suggest that VHC infection may be associated with the pathology of the disease instead of behaviors such as intravenous drug injection, since these behaviors are present in the three disorders.

We analyze the DRN sequencing data of the hippocampus of the subjects identified as positive VHC through sequence capture. We found that although the virus was absent in this fabric, the RNA of the HC in the CP was associated with transcriptional changes of guests consisting of the hippocampus that were potentially related to the innate immune response.

Our results are consistent with previous studies and provide clues about the contribution of viruses to the pathology of psychiatric disorders.