MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) Ekaterina Blinova — A virus which affects specific brain activities has been revealed by infectious disease experts from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
"The virus, called ATCV-1, showed up in human brain tissue several years ago, but at the time researchers could not be sure whether it had entered the tissue before or after the people died. Then, it showed up again in a survey of microbes and viruses in the throats of people with psychiatric disease," Science Magazine reported.
A database search indicated that the mysterious virus "typically infects a species of green algae found in lakes and rivers." Scientists stress that so-called "chloroviruses" have never been known to infect humans. However, "unexpectedly," they have discovered "DNA sequences homologous to the virus ATCV-1" in samples obtained from human adults.
The researchers claim that the virus causes a "modest" but "measurable" decrease in brain functioning. The suggestion has been confirmed experimentally: mice infected with ATCV-1 demonstrated poorer results in exploring new objects and spent 10 percent more time to find their way out of mazes. The scientists point out that the virus can provoke changes in "gene expression within the brain," for instance in the animals' hippocampus. According to the study, almost 1,300 genes of the infected mice were found to be impacted by ATCV-1. "These genes comprised pathways related to synaptic plasticity, learning, memory formation, and the immune response to viral exposure," the study states.
Remarkably, other tests showed that healthy humans struck by the mysterious virus "performed 10 percent worse than uninfected people on tests requiring visual processing”; specifically, they were slower in connecting a sequence of random numbers with lines. The slower brain activities were not associated with any differences in sex, race, income or education level, Science Magazine emphasizes.
The experts insist that although the effect produced by the virus looks modest, the revelation is significant. "Our study indicates that viruses in the environment not thought to infect humans can have biological effects," the abstract of the study reads.
Joram Feldon, a co-researcher and a neuroscientist emeritus at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich claims that the cognitive effects of the virus are too small. Although he believes the study is "innovative", he is not "worried about the existence" of ATCV-1. However, Allan Kalueff, a researcher and director of the ZENEREI Institute in Slidell, Louisiana, points out that the study has apparently indicated there could be other unknown organisms which may significantly impact "human sensory processing and behavior."
