Studies of cellular immunity, serum interferon titers, and natural killer cell activity in schizophrenic patients

In one of the hypotheses on the causes of schizophrenia it is proposed that viruses may play a role in the etiology and pathogenesis of at least some forms of schizophrenia. In our study, 30 healthy adults and 30 schizophrenic patients were investigated for humoral and cellular immunity against herpes simplex virus (HSV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV). A whole blood test system with several advantages over commonly used procedures was used to study cell-mediated immunity to CMV and HSV. Our data showed no difference between serum antibody levels or cellular immunity of the schizophrenic patients and control individuals as far as HSV and CMV were tested. Serum interferon may be indicative for the presence of a yet unidentified virus. Therefore, we tested interferon levels in the serum of patients. No interferon was detected in any of the samples tested. Further, we tested the activity of natural killer (NK) cells in the blood of schizophrenic patients and controls. NK-activity of the patients' blood cells was not different from that of normal donors.