SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Recent studies suggest Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) could be the cause of the autoimmune condition, Multiple Sclerosis or M.S.
EBV is what causes Mononucleosis, which is often referred to as mono or the kissing disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Patients who catch mono often deal with extreme fatigue, swollen glands, rash and other symptoms which can last for weeks or even months. The study finds some patients who had EBV were later diagnosed with M.S.
ABC10 Health Expert Dr. Payal Kohli said when someone has a viral infection it activates their immune system to make all sorts of antibodies and other cells that attack the virus.
"Once in a while the immune system will get confused and some of those antibodies will cross-react with our own cells, and that's what we think may be happening in the case of post-viral multiple sclerosis. The virus activates that immune response that then goes awry and ends up attacking our own nervous system," Kohli said.
Kohli said these types of discoveries can help inform how these viruses are treated.
"This is huge when it comes to medical discoveries and breakthroughs because the idea is that we could potentially vaccinate people against EBV and prevent them from getting multiple sclerosis. It may also help us to treat those patients who are recovering from an EBV infection or from mononucleosis in a different way or monitor them more closely to see if they develop M.S.," Kohli said.
She said the next step could be to apply these findings on a larger scale.
"We found that there's a causal link between this virus and between this autoimmune condition. Now we get a snapshot of how we can really start to roll out vaccinations potentially early in life just like we did for HPV, which is the virus that causes cervical cancer before people are possibly exposed to EBV," Kohli said.
She also said this could also open the door to new treatments for M.S. that might already be associated with EBV.
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