Well I feel good now. I started two email conversations with girls at work. One was extremely upset. But unlike yesterday I didn't feel apart of it. It will work out ok i wrote it always does i wrote and it made sense to me at the time but she "no it doesn't" and i wrote you got your body and your mind. but that didn't work so then I........

This a is new and interesting article that explains, among other things, that the detection of CIC's puts the earlier negative studies concerning human borna virus infection into doubt. Some excerpts are below and the free full text is available.

Clin Microbiol Rev. 2003 Jul;16(3):534-45.

Related Articles, Links

=http://cmr.asm.org/cgi/pmidlo...;pmid=12857781" 
Borna disease virus infection, a human mental-health risk.

Bode L, Ludwig H.

Project Bornavirus Infections, Robert Koch Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany.

As detailed elsewhere (8), CICs(antibody-bound circulating immune complexes (CICs)) represent the prevailing infection marker and are found in more than 90% of patients with a major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder during acute depression.

Long-term follow-up studies of patients are particularly important in major affective disorders because the patients' condition alternates between disease and good health.

changes in the relative amounts of CIC and plasma antigen over time can be monitored precisely and even allow a prognostic estimate, e.g., large plasma antigen amounts correlated significantly with the severity of depression in major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder patients (8), whereas decline of these markers coincided with clinical improvement

The discovery of CICs after years of controversy due to low antibody titers or “disappearing” antibodies explains many previous discrepancies (1, 2, 12, 21, 24, 32, 38, 46, 58). Moreover, the existence of BDV CICs and antigenemia has provided insight into the dynamics of a poorly understood equilibrium of plasma antigen, antibodies, and CICs during persistent BDV infection and its impact on clinical features (9).

Among patients in the acute stage, 40 to 50% had BDV antigen-positive PBMCs in the group of severe cases (4, 8, 9, 22a), and the probability of isolating virus increased considerably with increased disease severity (6). Most of the acutely depressed major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder patients were CIC positive (>90%), and the severity of symptoms correlated with high plasma levels of CIC and antigen (Fig. 1). Among patients of all clinical categories of depression in the study, about 50% were CIC positive (8).

Unlike schizophrenia, major affective disorders (major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder) have become increasingly linked with activated BDV infection.

This abstract proposes that the borna virus effects the 5ht brain system.

Developmental alterations in serotoninergic neurotransmission in Borna disease virus (BDV)-infected rats: a multidisciplinary analysis.

Dietz D, Vogel M, Rubin S, Moran T, Carbone K, Pletnikov M.

Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.

Neonatal Borna disease virus (BDV) infection of the rat brain serves as a valuable model for studying the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental abnormalities following early brain injury. Previous experiments have demonstrated significant alterations in regional tissue content of serotonin (5-HT) in neonatally BDV-infected Lewis rats. The present study sought to provide more insights into postnatal virus-associated alterations in 5-HT neurotransmission by evaluating the density of 5-HT1a receptors in the hippocampus and 5-HT2a receptors in the cortex, regional 5-HT tissue concentrations, behavioral responses to a 5-HT agonist, quipazine, and numbers of neurons in specific subfields of the hippocampus on days 7, 14, and 30 after neonatal BDV infection in Lewis rats. Neonatal BDV infection was found to be associated with a gradual increase in the density of 5-HT2a and 5-HT1a postsynaptic receptors followed by an elevation of 5-HT contents at both the levels of synaptic terminals (i.e., cortex and hippocampus) and cell bodies (i.e., raphe nuclei). In addition, there was an enhanced behavioral response to quipazine. Virus-associated neurochemical and behavioral changes were accompanied by a decline in the number of neurons in the dentate gyrus and in the CA1 field of the hippocampus. No change in the number of neurons in the CA3/2 field of the hippocampus was observed. The present pattern of BDV-associated alterations in 5-HT brain system along with available data from other laboratories suggest that BDV might compromise axonal transport and/or release of 5-HT, resulting in decreased 5-HT neurotransmission.

PMID: 15385249 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Here is a meta-analysis that supports the human exposure to Borna Virus

The studies referenced are all dated prior to january 2000.

Borna disease virus and the evidence for human pathogenicity: a systematic review.

Chalmers RM, Thomas DR, Salmon RL.

NPHS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Abton House, Wedal Road, Cardiff CF14 3QX, UK.

BACKGROUND: Borna disease is a neurological viral disease of veterinary importance in central Europe, although Borna Disease virus (BDV) has been reported to be present in animals in most continents. The hypothesis that BDV is associated with human illness is controversial. However, should even a small fraction of mental illness be attributable to infection with BDV, this would be an important finding, not least because illness in that sub-population would, theoretically, be preventable. METHODS: We systematically reviewed the evidence: that BDV infects humans; for the role of BDV in human neuropsychiatric illness; to assess the suitability of currently available laboratory methods for human epidemiological studies. RESULTS: We identified 75 documents published before the end of January 2000, describing 50 human studies for BDV. There were five case studies and 44 (sero)prevalence studies, in a variety of patient groups. Nineteen prevalence studies (43%) investigated seroprevalence, 11 (25%) investigated viral prevalence and 14 (32%) investigated both. Seroprevalence ranged from 0% to 48%, and prevalence of virus or viral footprints from 0% to 82%. DISCUSSION: Although agreed gold standard tests and evidence for test specificity are lacking, there is evidence that humans are exposed to the virus. Further epidemiological studies are required to establish whether there are associations with disease.

Publication Types:

• Review

I figure that I've always been totally fucked when it comes to just about everything. But I've been reading about some new reseach and I thought I'd just collect it here on this blog.