Type specific Real time PCR for detection of human herpes virus 6 in schizophrenia and bipolar patients: A case control study

Schizophrenia (SC) and bipolar disorder (BD) are among the most devastating diseases worldwide. There
are several lines of evidence suggesting that viruses may play significant roles in the etiology of these mental disorders.
The aim of this study was the detection of HHV-6A/B in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of SC and BD
patients versus the healthy control (HC) subjects using a new method of type-specific Real time PCR analysis.
Methods: A type-specific Real time PCR was performed for simultaneous detection and typing of HHV-6A/B in the
PBMCs of 120 SC and BD patients and 75 HCs.
Results: Only one case of HHV-6B out of 120 (0.8 %) SC and BD patients and two cases of HHV-6A (2.7 %) in 75 HCs
were detected.
Conclusions: The low levels of HHV-6 detection in PBMCs, severely limited the capacity of this study to investigate the
association between the presence of HHV-6 and BD or SC in this population, thus no conclusions can be drawn in this
regard. Meanwhile this study introduces a Real time PCR based method for type specific detection of HHV-6A/B in
clinical samples