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Viruses May Trigger Psychiatric Disorders
Viruses may trigger the development of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, according to a study published online in Frontiers in Microbiology.
“Inherited factors have long been known to increase the risk of developing several types of psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia,” said researcher Bhupesh K. Prusty, PhD, of the department of microbiology at the University of Würzburg in Germany.
“But there is also strong evidence that environmental factors, particularly those that lead to neuroinflammation early in life, might play an important etiologic role in the pathogenesis of these disorders as well. Viruses are such an environmental factor.”
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“Pathogens may disrupt neurodevelopment and cross talk with the immune system at key developmental stages,” Dr. Prusty explained.
Suspecting a role of human herpesviruses HHV-6A and HHV-6B, specifically, in the development of psychiatric disorders, Dr. Prusty and colleagues studied 2 of the largest human brain biopsy cohorts from the Stanley Medical Research Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland. Their findings confirmed their suspicions.
“We were able to find active infection of HHV-6 predominantly within Purkinje cells of [the] human cerebellum in bipolar and major depressive disorder patients,” Dr. Prusty said.
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The results are the first to demonstrate that type HHV-6 viruses are capable of infecting neurons, according to the researchers. Such viral infections possibly lead to cognitive disorders and, eventually, mood disorders.
The finding disproves theories that dormant viruses hidden in organs and tissues will not lead to disease, researchers noted.
“Studies like ours,” Dr. Prusty said, “prove this thinking as wrong.”
—Jolynn Tumolo
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