The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7329 p845
11 December 2004

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Antipsychotics may treat viral brain disease

Immuno-compromised patients may benefit from treatment with antipsychotic drugs if they are vulnerable to the effects of a potentially fatal nervous system disorder, cell culture experiments have suggested (Science 2004;306:1380).

US researchers found that serotonin receptor antagonists inhibited infection of human glial cells by the human polyomavirus, JCV, which causes the fatal demylinating disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

The incidence of PML has increased 50-fold since 1979 and now affects 1 in 200,00 people. There is, at present, no effective treatment.

The researchers hypothesised that JCV uses either dopamine receptors or serotonin receptors to infect glial cells. They found that serotonin, serotonin receptor antagonists and antibodies directed at serotonin receptors inhibited infection. The authors therefore suggest that serotonin receptor antagonists may offer an effective treatment for PML.