Virus infections and chronic rheumatic disorders

There is little direct evidence that viruses cause inflammatory arthritis in the sense that infectious agents classically cause disease. However, there are several mechanisms by which virus infections could be implicated in the pathogenesis of such disorders. In particular virus infection of lymphocytes could produce the combination of selective immunodeficiency and immune stimulation that characterizes many rheumatic disorders. In addition re-combination events between integrated pro-viruses in DNA and exogenous infections would account for the lack of any obvious correlation between the appearance of these disorders and any obvious preceding viral infection. Certainly, more sophisticated approaches will be needed to test such hypotheses rather than relying on classical techniques for viral isolation.