Bartonella on the Brain?

Researchers at North Carolina State University discovered that patients diagnosed with psychosis are three times more likely to have Bartonella DNA in their blood, suggesting that vector-borne pathogens play a role in mental illness (1).

Bartonella, a group of vector-borne bacteria transmitted by arthropods and animals, has at least 45 different known species – 18 of which have been found to infect humans (2). This research journey has been in progress since the early 1990s, shortly after infections with Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana were documented in AIDS patients in the United States (3). Beforehand, there was no knowledge of Bartonella infecting animals or humans in North America.

As technology advances, researchers have developed methods of diagnosing Bartonella in patients with various chronic illnesses, leading groups to question a link between the bacteria and chronic ailments. With this in mind, a team of researchers at North Carolina State University aimed to explore connections between Bartonella DNA and psychosis.

“As a veterinary internist and an infectious disease researcher, I believe that blood-borne infection should be critically examined as a potential cause of diseases for which the etiology (cause) is unclear or unknown,” says Edward Breitschwerdt, Professor of Internal Medicine at NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine and corresponding author. “With an increasing number of newly discovered bacteria inducing zoonotic infections in humans, in conjunction with a lack of sensitive diagnostic testing modalities, we have faced an uphill battle in conducting our research.”

The 116 participants were split into different groups (control, prodromal, patients with a confirmed psychosis diagnosis, and close relatives of patients diagnosed with psychosis) before donating blood for analysis. Researchers used immunofluorescence assays and droplet digital PCR testing to detect and amplify DNA in the blood samples. Of participants diagnosed with psychosis, 43 percent were found to have Bartonella DNA in their blood, while 14 percent were Bartonella DNA positive in the control group.

“This does not prove Bartonella caused these conditions, but it confirms that a subset of patients with these diagnoses have the bacteria in their blood, and potentially their brain,” explains Breitschwerdt. “We hope to continue pursuing studies related to the genus Bartonella and neurological diseases”.

^{Image Credit: Image for collage sourced from Adobe Stock and Pixabay}