E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER
Vienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN
#9119
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982."

================================================================================\
==========


http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/8686618.htm
Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN

Schizophrenia mysteries may yield to vaccine
May 17, 2004


By TOM SIEGFRIED / The Dallas Morning News



Brains afflicted by schizophrenia have a tough time coping with the
complexities of the world.

Hallucinations and paranoia, lack of motivation, loss of interest in life,
plus disorganized thinking and disorientation - all are hallmarks of the
world's most distressing mental illness.

Medication can control some of those symptoms, particularly the active
problems like hearing voices. But the impaired thought processes are harder
to repair. Science's understanding of schizophrenia has so far not sufficed
to find the path to a cure. And that's a clue that there's something going
on with schizophrenia that scientists aren't aware of.

Researchers studying mice, though, have examined a new idea for dealing
with
schizophrenia, suggesting that it might be possible to alleviate its
symptoms with something like a vaccination. Just as other vaccines boost
the
body's disease defenses, this vaccine could help the immune system prevent
schizophrenia's destruction of the brain's mental powers.

If such a strategy works, it suggests that the body's immune system affects
mental function in a way that most scientists have not previously
suspected.
Usually the immune system is supposed to govern how well you feel, not how
well you think. But scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science and
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel say the disease-fighting white
blood cells known as T cells play a major role in thought and memory.

In their experiments, the scientists used a standard mouse swimming
pool, in
which the mice learn to find a small platform submerged just below water
level. A smart mouse will learn where the platform is in relation to
objects
visible in the room and be able to swim to it quickly. After finding the
platform, the mouse is allowed to sit on it for 30 seconds and then is
returned to its familiar cage.

Mice with impaired immune systems swim just as well as normal mice and find
an above-water platform just as quickly. But immune-deficient mice learn a
submerged platform's location more slowly. And when tested a day later,
they
have forgotten what they learned in their initial training.

In another test, the scientists injected normal mice with drugs that cause
psychotic symptoms, mimicking schizophrenia. Learning ability was also
lessened in the injected mice - it took them longer to learn how to find
the
platform, if they were able to learn how at all. Some would just swim
randomly or in circles.

"Even when placed directly on the hidden platform after a trial in which
they had failed to locate it, these mice quickly walked or jumped off and
continued swimming in a haphazard and disorganized manner," the scientists
wrote in a paper released this month by The Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.

It's possible, though, to prevent the drug-induced mental deficits with a
vaccination, Jonathan Kipnis, Hagit Cohen and collaborators reported. A
week
before the drug injections, the scientists vaccinated some mice with Cop-1,
which stimulates production of immune system T cells. Vaccinated mice could
learn to find and stay on the platform. Even when it is moved away from the
pool's walls, making it harder to find, the vaccinated mice learn to
swim to
the inner part of the pool and find and climb onto the platform.

Interpreting these findings can be tricky, because much remains unknown.
But
they do indicate that a healthy immune system is necessary to have a
properly working brain. (In fact, the scientists speculate, immune system
problems in the elderly may be related to incidence of dementia.) And it
seems that a vaccination boost can help when medical problems interfere
with
the immune system's brain-protecting duties.

The vaccine in these experiments, Cop-1, is approved for treating multiple
sclerosis and has been shown to help repair damaged brain tissue. T cells
recruited by Cop-1 travel to damaged tissue and stimulate production of
BDNF, an important chemical for nourishing brain cells.

Curiously, schizophrenia patients have been reported to lack normal levels
of BDNF, although it's not clear whether reduced BDNF causes schizophrenia
or schizophrenia depletes BDNF. But it does seem possible, the researchers
say, that improving BDNF levels could counteract schizophrenia's symptoms.

You can't just inject patients with BDNF, because it's a big molecule that
won't pass from the blood into the brain. T cells, though, can induce brain
cells to generate BDNF on site, making vaccination to boost T-cell levels a
better strategy.

"It should be noted," the scientists wrote, "that the vaccination is
intended not only for preventive use, but also as a remedial therapy for
chronic patients." Further mouse experiments suggest that benefits can
occur
from vaccinations at any stage of the disease.

A similar strategy may be helpful in AIDS patients afflicted by mental
deterioration, or even in age-related dementia more generally. It all
depends on how much more complicated the human brain is than the mouse
brain, and how well human brains can figure out what else they don't know
about how the brain works.

E-mail tsiegfried@...


=============================================
News@... is a free service of the National Vaccine Information
Center and is supported through membership donations. Learn more about
vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed
consent rights http://www.nvic.org

Become a member and support NVIC's work https://www.909shot.com/order.htm

To sign up for a free e-mail subscription http://www.nvic.org/emaillist.htm

NVIC is funded through individual membership donations and does not
receive government funding. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co-founder.