A Shot in the Arm?
August 09, 2002
A particular type of nerve cell, known as a glial cell, has been fingered as a cause of schizophrenia. The theory could help explain an abundance of disparate evidence for what triggers the disease.
Genes linked to schizophrenia and glial cells
Glial cells play a crucial role in the early development of the brain, and in adults they help support neurons, as well as fight infection. That makes them a prime suspect for involvement in schizophrenia, which affects one in 100 people, says Irving Gottesman at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis...For example, one possible trigger is the human herpes virus-6, which targets glial cells and infects almost every child before the age of two.
Schizophrenia is one of the worst diseases out there. It's not that it robs you of your life, but that it also destroys you. Little about yourself can be trusted as the negative symptoms causes voices, visions and disturbances of thought that make simple discernment of what is happening and what isn't impossible. It's a horrible thing to watch happen to people.
But can you imagine that a simple inoculation at 6 months of age could knock the bugger out forever? I know, there is no current ARV for Herpes-6 let alone a preventative vaccine, but our work with preventing HIV makes such a dream possible.
Lots of "ifs" but if this link between the virus, destroyed cells and schizophrenia hold true, damn. We might be able to kill that little nasty bit of RNA induced misery off, forever.
Posted by Jody at August 9, 2002 09:07 AM
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