No Changes in Paired Viral Antibody Titers during the Course of Acute Schizophrenia

Abstract

Although there have been many studies surveying the prevalence of specific viral antibodies in a large cohort of patients with schizophrenia, changes in antibody levels during the course of acute illness have not been fully investigated. We conducted a preliminary study investigating levels of antibodies to 5 herpesviruses (herpes simplex virus type 1, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, varicella-zoster virus and human herpesvirus type 6) and 6 other viruses (measles, rubella, mumps, influenza A and B and Japanese encephalitis viruses) in paired sera of 8 patients with acute onset or exacerbation of schizophrenia. Assay for specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody was also performed for herpesviruses and mumps. Neither any relevant change in antibody levels nor appearance of specific IgM antibody was observed for any of the viruses in any of the patients investigated. It is unlikely that the active infection or reactivation of these viruses has direct causal relationship to schizophrenia in these patients.

Association between antibodies to multiple infectious and food antigens and new onset schizophrenia among US military personnel

“…Although numerous research reports, including our pilot study, found an association between T. gondii and schizophrenia (Mortensen et al, 2007;Torrey et al, 2007;Niebuhr et al, 2008a;Pedersen et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2013), a few others lack positive findings (Buka et al, 2001;Conejero-Goldberg et al, 2003;Leweke et al, 2004;Xiao et al, 2009;Yolken et al, 2011). Similar inconsistency is observed with other agents under consideration (Albrecht et al, 1980;Shrikhande et al, 1985;Gordon et al, 1996;Fukuda et al, 1999;Niebuhr et al, 2008b;Dickerson et al, 2010aDickerson et al, , 2010bNiebuhr et al, 2011;Jin et al, 2012).…”

Infectious agents associated with schizophrenia: A meta-analysis

“…Cytomegalovirus is a ubiquitous virus, with a very high prevalence, especially in low socio-economic populations (Cannon and Davis, 2005); therefore, it is not unusual to find significant differences between healthy controls and patients (Albrecht et al, 1980;Rimon et al, 1986;Fukuda et al, 1999;Brown et al, 2006). It is one of the main viruses involved in the appearance of brain lesions in foetuses and newly born children (Malm and Engman, 2007).…”

“…The studies that stood out the most, due to their weight, were those by Brown et al (2006) and Albrecht et al (1980), representing 26.58% and 22.11% of the total sample. Additionally, the highest quality was found on the following studies: Brown et al (2006), Fukuda et al (1999 and Taller et al (1996). After combining all fifteen studies no significant overall association between infections by CMV and schizophrenia (p = 0.544) was found (OR = 0.86; CI 95%: 0.54-1.38).…”

Different presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae, herpes simplex virus type 1, human herpes virus 6, and Toxoplasma gondii in schizophrenia: meta-analysis and analytical study

“…Finally, only three studies comparing infection by HHV-6 were included, all of them of acceptable quality (see Table 2 ). 22 , 24 , 28 The statistical analysis could not confirm the existence of a significant association between infection by this virus and schizophrenia (OR =0.34; 95% CI =0.49–2.42; P =0.283). Our results about IgG, IgA, and specific DNA measures are detailed in Table 3 .…”