Causes of Mental Illness? Posted: 08-23-05 05:14am
This article
(http://www.Virologyj.Com/home) suggests a
possible cause of many mental ilnesses,
including severe depression and
schizophrenia. It is written in quite
difficult scientific language but is is
well worth reading. If this guy is
right he deserves a nobel prize. Or
two.
Abstract (provisional)
much of the worlds' population is in
active or imminent danger of infection
with established infectious pathogens,
while sporadic and pandemic infections by
these and emerging agents threaten
everyone. Rna polymerases (rnapol)
generate enormous genetic and consequent
antigenic heterogeneity permitting viruses
and cellular pathogens to evade host
defences. Thus, rnapol causes more
morbidity and premature mortality than any
other molecule. The extraordinary genetic
heterogeneity defining viral quasispecies
results from rnapol infidelity causing
rapid cumulative genomic rna mutation a
process that, if uncontrolled, would cause
catastrophic loss of sequence integrity
and inexorable quasispecies extinction.
Selective replication and replicative
homeostasis, an epicyclical regulatory
mechanism dynamically linking rnapol
fidelity and processivity with
quasispecies phenotypic diversity,
modulating polymerase fidelity and, hence,
controlling quasispecies behaviour,
prevents this happening and also mediates
immune escape. Perhaps more importantly,
ineluctable generation of broad phenotypic
diversity after viral rna is translated to
protein quasispecies suggests a mechanism
of disease that specifically targets, and
functionally disrupts, the host cell
surface molecules--including hormone,
lipid, cell signalling or neurotransmitter
receptors --that viruses co-opt for cell
entry. This mechanism-- "viral receptor
disease" --may explain so-called "viral
autoimmunity", some classical autoimmune
disorders and other diseases, including
type ii diabetes mellitus, and some forms
of obesity. Viral receptor disease is a
unifying hypothesis that may also explain
some diseases with well-established, but
multi-factorial and apparently unrelated
aetiologies--like coronary artery and
other vascular diseases--in addition to
diseases like schizophrenia that are
poorly understood and lack plausible,
coherent, pathogenic explanations.
