ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2001
Retroviral RNA identified in the cerebrospinal fluids and brains of individuals with schizophrenia.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 138 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
138 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 366 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cerebrospinal fluid markers of inflammation and infections in schizophrenia and affective disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Review
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- Transposable Elements Are Dynamically Regulated in Medium Spiny Neurons and May Contribute to the Molecular and Behavioral Adaptations to Cocaine.Biological psychiatry · 2026Article
- SETDB1 modulates neuroinflammation in the mouse cortex by regulating neuronal P2rx7 expression.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Transcriptional landscapes of dengue patients reveal associations between HERV activity and disease severity.NAR molecular medicine · 2026Article
- Human Endogenous Retroviruses and Diseases.MedComm · 2025Review
- A study on the transcriptional characteristics of novel HERV gene in the blood of children with Kawasaki disease and its correlation with the disease.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Unravelling the Viral Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: A Comprehensive Review of Mechanisms and Evidence.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Recapitulation and reversal of neuropsychiatric phenotypes in a mouse model of human endogenous retrovirus type W expression.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- The relationship between neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and NLRP3 inflammasome.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2025Review
- Human endogenous retrovirus W family envelope protein (ERVWE1) regulates macroautophagy activation and micromitophagy inhibition via NOXA1 in schizophrenia.Virologica Sinica · 2025Article
- Viruses and psychiatric disorders: We have not crossed the borderline from hypothesis to proof yet (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2025Review
- HERV-W Env Induces Neuron Pyroptosis via the NLRP3-CASP1-GSDMD Pathway in Recent-Onset Schizophrenia.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Human endogenous retroviruses in schizophrenia: clinical evidence, molecular mechanisms, and implications.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Review
- Review
- Integrating human endogenous retroviruses into transcriptome-wide association studies highlights novel risk factors for major psychiatric conditions.Nature communications · 2024Article
- HERV-W upregulation expression in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: unraveling potential links to systemic immune/inflammation status.Retrovirology · 2024Article
- Species-Specific Transcription Factors Associated with Long Terminal Repeat Promoters of Endogenous Retroviruses: A Comprehensive Review.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Beyond pathogens: the intriguing genetic legacy of endogenous retroviruses in host physiology.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Review
78 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a serious brain disease of uncertain etiology. A role for retroviruses in the etiopathogenesis of some cases of schizophrenia has been postulated on the basis of clinical and epidemiological observations. We found sequences homologous to retroviral pol genes in the cell-free cerebrospinal fluids (CSFs) of 10 of 35 (29%) individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Retroviral sequences also were identified in the CSFs of 1 of 20 individuals with chronic schizophrenia. However, retroviral sequences were not identified in any of the CSFs obtained from 22 individuals with noninflammatory neurological diseases or from 30 individuals without evidence of neurological or psychiatric diseases (chi(2) = 19.25, P < 0.001). The nucleotide sequences identified in the CSFs of the individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were related to those of the human endogenous retroviral (HERV)-W family of endogenous retroviruses and to other retroviruses in the murine leukemia virus genus. Transcription of RNA homologous to members of the HERV-W family of retroviruses also was found to be up-regulated differentially in the frontal cortex regions of brains obtained postmortem from individuals with schizophrenia, as compared with corresponding tissue from individuals without psychiatric diseases. The transcriptional activation of certain retroviral elements within the central nervous system may be associated with the development of schizophrenia in at least some individuals. The further characterization of retroviral elements within the central nervous system of individuals with schizophrenia might lead to improved methods for the diagnosis and management of this disorder.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.