Hepatitis C virus (HCV) may cross into the lining of the brain and thus help cause behavioral symptoms in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to a study in Translational Psychiatry.
Maree J. Webster, Ph.D., of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, and colleagues performed RNA sequencing on postmortem brain samples from 84 people with schizophrenia, 73 with bipolar disorder, 23 with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 76 controls. The researchers took the samples from each brain’s choroid plexus, a collection of cells that make up the lining of the brain’s fluid-filled cavities and produce the fluid that protects the brain and spinal cord. (Viruses are known to target the choroid plexus.)
The researchers found more viruses overall, including herpesviruses, in samples from people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder than in controls or samples from people with MDD. But, unlike other viruses, HCV was only present in choroid plexus samples of people who had schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
The researchers also analyzed the electronic health records of 285 million individuals, finding that the prevalence of chronic HCV was 3.6% and 3.9% in people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, respectively, whereas it was 1.8% in people with MDD and .5% in people without psychiatric disorders.
“Our findings provide compelling support for the viral hypothesis of psychiatric disease and identify HCV as a feasible viral pathogen that contributes to the neuropathology of [schizophrenia] and [bipolar disorder],” the researchers wrote. “Given that the worldwide rate of [schizophrenia] and [bipolar disorder] is approximately 1% and 3%, respectively, identifying and immediately treating the small subset of patients infected with HCV has the potential to improve psychiatric symptoms for hundreds of thousands of people.”
For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “A Call to Action: Test Our Patients for Hepatitis C.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Hailshadow)
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