Further Evidence To Link EBV Virus Infection With MS, UK

Main Category: Multiple Sclerosis
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 19 Nov 2007 - 3:00 PST

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New research published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine has provided more evidence that a common human virus called Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) plays an important role in the development of MS.

EBV, the virus which causes glandular fever, has been linked to MS for over 30 years. Several studies appear to have shown that people with MS have been exposed to EBV and that EBV is active in their bodies during MS attacks.

In MS, lesions (or plaques) are patches in the central nervous system where inflammation has resulted in the loss of myelin, the protective sheath which surrounds nerve fibres. This study on 22 people with MS demonstrated that EBV is present in the lesions that attack myelin in almost all of the cases examined (21 out of 22).

The researchers propose that EBV is carried across the blood-brain barrier by a certain type of immune cell called B cells, the cells of the immune system that make anti-bodies. EBV infected B cells which accumulated in lesions were shown to be a common feature of MS, and the number of EBV infected cells correlated with the degree of brain inflammation.

The absence of EBV infected B cells in other inflammatory neurological conditions indicates that this may be specific to MS and not a general phenomenon driven by inflammation.

It is worth noting that EBV is one of the most common viruses in the environment, with up to 90 per cent of the population thought to have been infected by it at some time, most of whom do not go on to develop MS.

There is not yet enough data to prove that EBV infection causes MS. There needs to be further research to explain the link between EBV infection and MS.

http://www.mssociety.org.uk