Protease resistant prion proteins are not present in sporadic “poor outcome” schizophrenia
- aCenter for Neurobiology and Behavior, Department of Psychiatry, bDepartment of Neurology, cCenter for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, dInstitute of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
- Dr Steven E Arnold, 142 Clinical Research Building, 415 Curie Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Telephone 001 215 573 3258; fax 001 215 573 2041; email: alveus{at}mail.med.upenn.edu
- Received 15 April 1998
- Accepted 18 June 1998
Abstract
Various clinical and epidemiological data have suggested the possibility of infectious mechanisms in schizophrenia. In addition, lengthy prodromal psychiatric symptoms can presage the development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a prototypical prion disorder. Accordingly, the presence of human protease resistant prion proteins (PrPres) was assessed in postmortem frontal cortical and thalamic tissues from a prospectively accrued and well characterised sample of elderly patients with chronic, sporadic, “poor outcome” schizophrenia using a sensitive immunoblot assay. No PrPreswas found in the brains of any of the cases, providing evidence against a role for abnormal prion proteins in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
