Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026
Separation of Immune Cell Subpopulations in Peripheral Blood Samples from Children with Infectious Mononucleosis
Published on: September 7, 2022
An altered immune response to Epstein-Barr virus in multiple sclerosis: a prospective study
P Sundström1, P Juto, G Wadell
1Department of Neurology, Umeå University Hospital, Sweden. peter.sundstrom@neuro.umu.se
Objective:
To investigate the association between human herpesviruses and multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as between measles virus and MS.
Methods:
The authors identified prospectively collected serum samples from 73 MS cases and retrospective sera from 161 MS cases in two population-based serum bank registers. Analyses of IgG antibody responses in cases and matched referents were performed for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV [EBNA-1 and VCA]), human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella zoster virus (VZV), and measles.
Results:
All cases showed signs of past EBV infection. High activity to EBNA-1 and HHV-6 significantly (borderline significance for HHV-6) increased the risk for MS in prospective sera. A discrepancy between activities to EBNA-1 and VCA was striking in MS samples collected less than 5 years before relapsing-remitting MS onset, where high activity to EBNA-1 significantly increased, and high VCA activity significantly decreased the risk for MS. There was no support for major causal roles for HSV, VZV, or measles.
Conclusion:
Individuals who will develop MS exhibit an altered immune response against the EBV virus characterized by a high IgG activity to EBNA-1 in the absence of high activity to VCA, this being most pronounced in the 5-year period preceding MS onset.
