Leo wondered why the voices in his head
kept telling him to eat salad....
Posted on 08/24/2002 7:07:19 AM PDT by blam
New life in schizophrenia discovery
August 23 2002 at 03:10PM
Stockholm - Swedish scientists have found a tiny, mysterious particle in the spinal marrow fluid which may be a new form of life and which could help explain the cause of schizophrenia.
"They may be involved in the development of the disease or may result from the disease process in brains of schizophrenic patients," the researchers said in an abstract of the study published on Friday.
Schizophrenia is a widespread and debilitating form of mental disease with symptoms ranging from delusions and an altered sense of self to apathy and social withdrawal. It affects around one percent of people.
Lennart Wetterberg, professor of psychiatry at Stockholm's St Goran Hospital and one of the co-authors of the study, said the full significance of the findings was not yet clear and more research was needed.
'This could be an entirely new form of life' "We have viruses, bacteria and prions - this could be an entirely new form of life," he said.
But he said this was just one theory, and it was still uncertain what form of life the particles, which are bigger than ordinary viruses but smaller than bacteria, represented.
The study, published in Neuroscience Letters, was made on the basis of spinal fluid obtained by lumbar puncture from 22 schizophrenic patients and 38 control patients.
The study found spherical particles - only 100 000th of a millimetre in size - in the spinal fluid of 20 of the 22 patients with schizophrenia against only two of the 38 controls, it said.
The particles did not include bacterial DNA material and had so far not replicated in culture.
"They are not any of the usual viruses or bacteria that have been found," Wetterberg said. "They are more like something like the prion which is causing mad cow disease - but it took 15 years until it was found out what that really was."
He said it was too early to speculate whether the particles were a cause of schizophrenia or whether the disease caused them, and a bigger number of people would have to be studied.
"We have found the first link in a chain, and whether my excitement increases or decreases depends on the answer to the next step," he said.
Yup....and what else might it be doing?
Leo wondered why the voices in his head
kept telling him to eat salad....
Hmmm.. wonder if there are more than one variant of these critters? We may have the explanation of both Democrats and Islamics here. Spinal Tap, anyone?
Also, haven't we known about these things for some time? I remember learning about them in AP Biology in high school some ten years ago. Not exactly a "new form of life" as the article says. Besides, I seem to recall, there is much debate about whether prions are living at all. I mean, if you can quibble over whether viruses should be included in the traditional taxonomies with other life (as many scientists do), the case for prions ought to be even more dubious.
Perhaps marijuana inhibits a person's ability to fight the parisite.
Actually the story and study were to promote a new drug Merck is working on that affects cannabinoid receptors.
The author of the story got material from a Merck press release. I know that because he told me.
Another cure looking for a disease.
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