Calif. The answer to the schizophrenia puzzle might lie in viruses and genes. Researchers have studied 100 blood samples collected from women who gave birth in the late 1950s and early 1960s, says Robert Yolken, professor of developmental neurovirology. Scientists identified 35 of those mothers whose children developed schizophrenia. Yolken says some children may be predisposed to a latent virus, yet to be identified, contracted by the mother. The viral infection is not likely to cause a problem unless the child has a genetic susceptibility to developing schizophrenia.
Scientists now know only that there is a gene-virus interaction.
They still have to determine whether the virus triggers genetic activity or whether the gene is allowing the virus to replicate. Yolken says environmental factors, such as an infection contracted by the child later in life or malnutrition, can work in concert with genetics to lead to the symptoms of schizophrenia. He says there is a possibility that the latent virus activates the immune system, triggering the onset of that virus. Identifying the virus and its behavior could prevent cases of schizophrenia. The trick for scientists is to isolate the genes that can cause schizophrenia, says Ann Pulver, associate professor of psychiatry at the university's medical school.