Search for Viral Nucleic Acid Sequences in the Post Mortem Brains of Patients With Schizophrenia and Individuals who Have Committed Suicide

Molecular hybridisation was used to screen several areas of post mortem brain for viral nucleic acids in 20 patients with schizophrenia, 23 individuals who were suspected of having committed suicide, & 21 control cases. Cloned probes were able to detect picogram levels of viral DNA & to quantify herpes simplex type 1 DNA from encephalitic brain, but no sequences hybridising to cytomegalovirus, varicella zoster virus, herpes simplex type I or JC or BK papovaviruses were detected in any of the experimental samples. These findings are discussed with reference to the viral hypothesis of the aetiology of psychiatric disease. (34 refs)