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Medicine

Epstein-Barr Virus Found To Trigger Multiple Sclerosis (scientificamerican.com) 52

Posted by BeauHD from the connecting-the-dots dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: A connection between the human herpesvirus Epstein-Barr and multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been suspected but has been difficult to prove. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the primary cause of mononucleosis and is so common that 95 percent of adults carry it. Unlike Epstein-Barr, MS, a devastating demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, is relatively rare. It affects 2.8 million people worldwide. But people who contract infectious mononucleosis are at slightly increased risk of developing MS. In the disease, inflammation damages the myelin sheath that insulates nerve cells, ultimately disrupting signals to and from the brain and causing a variety of symptoms, from numbness and pain to paralysis. To prove that infection with Epstein-Barr causes MS, however, a research study would have to show that people would not develop the disease if they were not first infected with the virus. A randomized trial to test such a hypothesis by purposely infecting thousands of people would of course be unethical.

Instead researchers at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School turned to what they call "an experiment of nature." They used two decades of blood samples from more than 10 million young adults on active duty in the U.S. military (the samples were taken for routine HIV testing). About 5 percent of those individuals (several hundred thousand people) were negative for Epstein-Barr when they started military service, and 955 eventually developed MS. The researchers were able to compare the outcomes of those who were subsequently infected and those who were not. The results, published on September 13 in Science, show that the risk of multiple sclerosis increased 32-fold after infection with Epstein-Barr but not after infection with other viruses. "These findings cannot be explained by any known risk factor for MS and suggest EBV as the leading cause of MS," the researchers wrote. In an accompanying commentary, immunologists William H. Robinson and Lawrence Steinman, both at Stanford University, wrote, "These findings provide compelling data that implicate EBV as the trigger for the development of MS." Epidemiologist Alberto Ascherio, senior author of the new study, says, "The bottom line is almost: if you're not infected with EBV, you don't get MS. It's rare to get such black-and-white results."
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Epstein-Barr Virus Found To Trigger Multiple Sclerosis More

Epstein-Barr Virus Found To Trigger Multiple Sclerosis

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  • "Epstein" & "Barr"?? (Score:3)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @05:52PM (#62171101)

    Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the primary cause of mononucleosis

    Wow, not good to be in Trump's circle.

  • I have never had EBV to my knowledge. YMMV.

    • EBV is usually asymptomatic, or indistinguishable from other common childhood colds and the like, if contracted young; over half of all five year olds have had it, and it basically never expresses as mono that young, so they'd never know. Even if you're not infected until your teen years, the chance of it causing mono (as opposed to some less obviously EBV tied fever and cold-like symptoms) is less than 50%. You've almost certainly had it, you just didn't know it. If we had a good vaccine for EBV, it might

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sique ( 173459 )
      About 98% of all humans contract EBV during their lifetime. Like other Herpesviridae, once you contract them, you never get rid of them again. If you get infected with EBV during childhood, you won't get any symptoms at all. If you get infected as young adult, you might fall ill with infectious mononucleosis, but that is not a given.
    • MSâ(TM)er here as well. While finally getting dxâ(TM)ed 7 years ago (optic neuritis) I vaguely remember being asked if ive ever had mono a few times. Mono and ms has been suspect for years, hope we keep getting to that cure! Stay well!
      • Forgot to mention to had mono like 10 years before my first ms symptoms.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by waspleg ( 316038 )

          I was diagnosed because of the optic neuritis as well, it happened exactly 1 month to the day before my 30th birthday. Exactly 10 years, almost to the day, later, the second major relapse came. It does seem to vary quite a bit for different people. I hope your experience is better than mine, it's not something I would wish on anyone - and despite what my neurologist says, stress is definitely a factor. Take care.

          • Stress is my trigger as well. Knock on wood ive been doing great with Tysabri. Have a few brain lesions but no new ones thanks to tysabri. Fatigue, GI issues, and brain fog are my setbacks, but still work full time and my mobility is normal (im 43.). Amazing how different MS is for everyone.
    • Most people haven't- to their knowledge.

      However, the fact is, most people have.

    • It's easy to get an EB PCR test from Quest if you want. Not sure how it would help but it's there.

  • If it had just been called the Epstein virus, or the Barr virus, I would have dismissed it as a coincidence. The fact that it's a virus with the same name as two separate contemptible people though, who are both presently the subject of much public ire, got me curious. So I looked it up, and... it's still a coincidence. Michael Anthony Epstein and Yvonne Barr are two of the three researchers who discovered the virus. The third guy was Bert Geoffrey Achong, who got ignored for some reason.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      it's still a coincidence. Michael Anthony Epstein and Yvonne Barr are two of the three researchers who discovered the virus.

      Sucks to be them.

      (p.s. got a link to that info?)

    • The third guy was Bert Geoffrey Achong, who got ignored for some reason.

      Possibly because he was smart and did not want a deadly disease named after him! I know it is the tradition in science to often name things after the discoverers but I'm not sure that policy works well for those studying infectious diseases!

  • Ascherio (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @06:47PM (#62171261)

    I collaborated briefly with Ascherio a few years ago. The link between EBV and MS was very unpopular in the MS research world; Ascherio has been keeping the idea alive for a couple decades. A colleague and I had a paper the big bosses wouldn't let us publish and we were talking to Ascherio about ways to get more evidence.

    The idea has been getting more play lately, particularly since a pharma company has run a trial of a drug that targets EBV infected cells. I'm glad to see Ascherio is having some success too.

  • MS may be rare worldwide but in Canada it affects 1 in 400 people or about 100,000. Low sunlight levels are partly blamed (apparently there are high levels in other northern countries). I meet people with it quite a lot.

  • mRNA should make that possible.

  • I'm over 18 and white, so neither Epstein or Barr are interested in harrassing me. //Marked as Safe from Epstein-Barr

    • It's things like this that make me wonder if there isn't a spectator God out there.
      Also stuff like Mr. Orange's tiny "hands". Passive but with a little sense of humor.

  • DNA evidence against any veteran can now be thrown out.

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