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Volume 3
Current Research: Integrative Medicine
Chronic Diseases 2018
July 16-17, 2018
Chronic Diseases
July 16-17, 2018 Berlin, Germany
2
nd
International Conference on
Curr Res Integr Med 2018, Volume 3
DOI: 10.4172/2529-797X-C1-003
Direct evidence of viral infection and mitochondrial alterations in the brain of fetuses at high risk for
schizophrenia
Segundo Mesa Castillo
Havana Psychiatric Hospital, Cuba
Background:
There is increasing evidences that favor the prenatal beginning of schizophrenia. These evidences point toward intra-
uterine environmental factors that act specifically during the second pregnancy trimester producing a direct damage of the brain of
the fetus. The current available technology does not allow observing what is happening at cellular level since the human brain is not
exposed to a direct analysis in that stage of the life in subjects at high risk of developing schizophrenia.
Methods:
In 1977 we began a direct electron microscopic research of the brain of fetuses at high risk from schizophrenic mothers in
order to finding differences at cellular level in relation to controls.
Results:
In these studies we have observed within the nuclei of neurons the presence of complete and incomplete viral particles that
reacted in positive form with antibodies to herpes simplex hominis type I [HSV1] virus and mitochondria alterations.
Conclusion:
The importance of these findings can have practical applications in the prevention of the illness keeping in mind its
direct relation to the etiology and physiopathology of schizophrenia. A study of amniotic fluid cells in women at risk of having a
schizophrenic offspring is considered. Of being observed the same alterations that those observed previously in the cells of the brain
of the studied fetuses, it would intend to these women in risk of having a schizophrenia descendant, previous information of the
results, the voluntary medical interruption of the pregnancy or an early anti HSV1 viral treatment as preventive measure of the later
development of the illness.
segundo@infomed.sld.cu