” These findings,” state the authors, “can not be explained by any recognized risk aspect and suggest EBV as the leading reason for MS.”
They note that a person of the most reliable treatments for MS is anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies. Straight targeting EBV could have major advantages compared to anti-CD20-based therapies, they say, which have to be administered by intravenous infusion and may increase the threat of infections. An associated Perspective talks about these findings in more information.
For more on this research study, see Compelling Evidence That Multiple Sclerosis Is Caused by Epstein-Barr Virus.
Referral: “Longitudinal analysis reveals high occurrence of Epstein-Barr virus related to numerous sclerosis” by Kjetil Bjornevik, Marianna Cortese, Brian C. Healy, Jens Kuhle, Michael J. Mina, Yumei Leng, Stephen J. Elledge, David W. Niebuhr, Ann I. Scher, Kassandra L. Munger and Alberto Ascherio, 13 January 2022, Science.DOI: 10.1126/ science.abj8222.
Epstein-Barr Virus illustration.
A brand-new analysis of information from U.S. military recruits recommends several sclerosis (MS)– an illness considered of unknown etiology– is a problem of infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
Multiple sclerosis is a persistent demyelinating disease of the main nerve system. The underlying reason for this disease is not understood, but Epstein-Barr virus is believed to be a possible offender. A lot of individuals infected with this typical infection do not develop multiple sclerosis, and it is not practical to straight show causation of this disease in human beings.
Using information from more than ten million United States military employees kept track of over a 20-year period, 955 of whom were identified with MS during their service, Kjetil Bjornevik et al. tested the hypothesis that MS is brought on by EBV. They found that the risk of establishing MS in people who were EBV-negative increased by 32-fold following EBV infection.
