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Is Epstein-Barr Virus a trigger for MS?
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EBV is the culprit for glandular fever and in the western world approximately 95% of adults are infected with the virus. EBV has the unique ability to infect, activate and persist without detection in important cells of the immune system. Evidence indicates that MS is due to an attack on the brain by white blood cells and antibodies, cells of the immune system which defend the body against infectious diseases. No one knows why this immune attack on a person’s own tissue is not switched off in people with MS but EBV is now being seen as a likely suspect.
Professor Pender has come up with a novel hypothesis which could finally explain the EBV link. He proposes that EBV infects large numbers of antibody-producing cells and that some of these cells stay in the person’s brain playing a role in determining when the immune system mounts an attack on the brain.
MSRA initially invested $110 000 in a Research Fellowship to investigate if cells in the brain are actually infected by EBV, and to determine if a potential MS-specific defect allows EBV-infected cells to remain undetected by the immune system to attack the brain.
Results So Far
Preliminary results support the hypothesis that MS patients tend to have a higher frequency of EBV DNA in blood than healthy individuals. In addition, there is exciting evidence of a significant defect affecting the immune system of a patient with MS to recognise EBV allowing the virus to persist.
If there is a link between EBV and MS, control of EBV-infected cells should inhibit the progression of the disease and this may be able to be achieved through several existing drug therapies such as antiviral agents.
MSRA underwrote the project by a further $500 000 over 2007-2009.