NEW YORK,(Reuters Health) -- A marker found in the cerebrospinal
fluid of patients with schizophrenia may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat
the psychiatric disease.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, report
that some schizophrenia patients have detectable levels of an enzyme called
reverse transcriptase in their cerebrospinal fluid -- fluid that bathes and
protects the brain and spinal cord.
The discovery "could give us the first real tool for identifying patients
with schizophrenia," said Dr. Franco Yee, one of the research team, in a
statement.
Previous studies have suggested that a retrovirus may play a role in the
disease.
"Our basic underlying idea is that the manifestation of (psychiatric
diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) in adults represents an
interaction between some sort of genetic predisposition and some environmental
factor... which allows that genetic predisposition to become evident in terms of
the symptoms we call schizophrenia," researcher Dr. Robert H. Yolken of the
Stanley Neuropathology Consortium explained to Reuters Health.
"We're interested in retroviruses because they really fall into both areas
-- they're both genetic elements and environmental factors," he added. "The kind
of retroviruses we're talking about are not like HIV... which are true
infectious agents. Rather, they represent endogenous sequences in the human
genome which can get activated at various times in life," particularly during
fetal development or adolescence.
In the study, the research team found that 18 patients with recent-onset
schizophrenia, who had not yet had significant changes in lifestyle and
medication related to their disease, had significantly higher levels of reverse
transcriptase in their cerebrospinal fluid compared to 18 people without
schizophrenia.
The study authors next plan to study a larger group of patients, and hope
that in addition to becoming a diagnostic tool for schizophrenia, that the
marker may also assist in treatment of the chronic disease.
"If you have a marker where you can say, 'if this goes up they are going
to have a psychotic episode,' then you might use a slightly different mix of
drugs to treat them," said Yee in a press release.
