M.S. Caused By Epstein-Barr Virus

Until this paper, the cause of M.S. was very much an open question.

Now researchers have found strong evidence that it’s an infection, specifically the Epstein-Barr virus, best known for causing mononucleosis. In a large cohort of military service members followed over many years, infection with Epstein-Barr increased the likelihood of developing multiple sclerosis, or MS, by more than 32-fold, a team of scientists led by Harvard University’s Neuroepidemiology Research Group reported in the journal Science on Thursday. “Our data strongly suggest Epstein-Barr virus is the leading cause of multiple sclerosis[.]”

From here.

Great gains have been made in treating M.S., an autoimmune disease, in recent decades. The viral cause suggests that somebody, it may be a disease that people can be vaccinated against to prevent:

EBV is a virus, so our immune systems can be trained to prevent it from infecting us. Currently there is no vaccine against EBV; efforts to develop one have historically been hindered by technical hurdles and lack of investment because the virus isn’t initially life-threatening. But studies like this suggest we should be pushing harder on developing a vaccine against EBV, said Wilson. Besides MS, the virus has also been linked to a variety of cancers and other autoimmune diseases such as lupus.

“Understanding the detailed mechanism of how EBV triggers MS is more of an academic question,” said Wilson. “For a public vaccination campaign, we just have to show that it reduces cases of MS, even if we don’t understand exactly how it’s happening.”

There are precedents for such a campaign. In 2006, regulators approved a vaccine to prevent spread of four strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, which raise risks of developing cervical cancers that kill thousands of women in the U.S. each year. Although Americans were slow to get immunized, uptake in the U.K. was sky-high. A recent analysis found the vaccines have already nearly eliminated cervical cancer in young women there.

“If EBV is causing MS then this could shift the focus of research into trying to find a cure for MS as well as motivate vaccine development,” said Bjornevik.