Association of autism with polyomavirus infection in postmortem brains.

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.. */Association of autism with polyomavirus infection in postmortem

brains./*

Lintas C, Altieri L, Lombardi F, Sacco R, Persico AM.

Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry and Neurogenetics, University Campus

Bio-Medico, Rome, Italy.

J Neurovirol. 2010 Mar 29. [Epub ahead of print]

Autism is a highly heritable behavioral disorder. Yet, two decades of

genetic investigation have unveiled extremely few cases that can be

solely explained on the basis of de novo mutations or cytogenetic

abnormalities. Vertical viral transmission represents a nongenetic

mechanism of disease compatible with high parent-to-offspring

transmission and with low rates of disease-specific genetic

abnormalities. Vertically transmitted viruses should be found more

frequently in the affected tissues of autistic individuals compared to

controls. Our initial step was thus to assess by nested polymerase chain

reaction (PCR) and DNA sequence analysis the presence of cytomegalovirus

(CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1),

herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV2), human herpes virus 6 (HHV6), BK

virus (BKV), JC virus (JCV), and simian virus 40 (SV40) in genomic DNA

extracted from postmortem temporocortical tissue (Brodmann areas 41/42)

belonging to 15 autistic patients and 13 controls. BKV, JCV, and SV40

combined are significantly more frequent among autistic patients

compared to controls (67% versus 23%, respectively; P < .05). The

majority of positives yielded archetypal sequences, whereas six patients

and two controls unveiled single-base pair changes in two or more

sequenced clones. No association is present with the remaining viruses,

which are found in relatively few individuals (N </= 3). Also polyviral

infections tend to occur more frequently in the brains of autistic

patients compared to controls (40% versus 7.7%, respectively; P = .08).

*/Follow-up studies exploring vertical viral transmission as a possible

pathogenetic mechanism in autistic disorder should focus on, but not be

limited to, the role of polyomaviruses/*.

PMID: 20345322

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