[Detection of Borna disease virus-p24 specific antibody in the sera of schizophrenic patients of China by means of Western-blot].
To investigate whether Borna disease virus (BDV) infection is related to the schizophrenic patients from China. A reliable Western-blot method for detection of BDV-p24 antibody was established by adjusting the reaction conditions of BDV-p24 recombinant protein and specific antibodies. The sera of schizophrenic patients and normal controls from Heilongjiang Province were screened for specific BDV-p24 antibody by this method, and the BDV-p24 antibody positive sera were confirmed by the Western-blot method with sera-GST protein absorption. Ten of 116 (8.6%) schizophrenic patients were found to be positive for BDV-p24 specific antibody, while no BDV-p24 specific antibody was found in sera of normal controls. The results demonstrate that the Borna disease virus infection also exists in China, and the infection is possibly associated with schizophrenia in some way.