Coronaviruses in brain tissue from patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Brain tissue from 25 patients with clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS) and as controls brain tissue from 36 patients without neurological disease was tested for the presence of human coronaviral RNA. Four PCR assays with primers specific for N-protein of human coronavirus strain 229E and three PCR assays with primers specific for the nucleocapsid protein of human coronavirus strain OC43 were performed. Sporadic positive PCR assays were observed in both patients and controls in some of the PCR assays. However, these results were not reproducible and there was no difference in the proportion of positive signals from the MS patients compared to controls. Evidence for a chronic infection with the human coronaviruses strain 229E or OC43 in brain tissue from patients with MS or controls has not been found in this study.

Coronavirus Immunoreactivity in Individuals With a Recent Onset of Psychotic Symptoms

“…Data from a diversity of clinical, animal, and cell culture studies support that coronaviruses are neurotropic. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]43 In people infected with and who have survived SARS, serious neuropsychiatric complications including psychosis have been observed. 28,32 Auditory and visual hallucinations as well as manic and depression disorders have all been reportedly associated with SARS infections.…”

“…24,25 Data from clinical, postmortem, in vitro, and animal studies support that coronavirus exposure can have neurological consequences including psychiatric symptoms and encephalitis. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Clinical reports of psychiatric symptoms such as auditory and visual hallucinations and manic and depression disorders have been described in studies 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: 410-614-3918, fax: 410-955-3723, e-mail: eseverance@jhmi.edu of SARS infection. 28,32 Coronavirus RNA has been found in human brain autopsy samples of individuals with multiple sclerosis and in those with SARS.…”

Human Coronaviruses 229E and NL63: Close Yet Still So Far

“…[78][79][80][81][82] HCoV-229E has been suggested as the causative agent of multiple sclerosis. [83][84][85][86] Some research groups have found a higher frequency of HCoV-229E in the brains of patients with multiple sclerosis compared to a control group. However, the high frequency might have been influenced by the increased susceptibility of these patients, as a result of damage to the blood-brain barrier.…”

Recently Discovered Human Coronaviruses

“…9 In addition, presence of CoV RNA in brain tissue and antibody concentrations in serum of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, led to the suggestion of CoV involvement in MS etiology. [30][31][32][33] Although evidence for a significant correlation between presence of HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43 RNA and MS has not been demonstrated, 34,35 accumulating recent data from cell culture and animal models indeed confirm their neurotropic and neuroinvasive potential. 36,37 Nevertheless, actual brain invasion in MS patients by HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43 might be explained by a disrupted blood-brain barrier.…”