Sporadic ALS/MND: a global neurodegeneration with retroviral involvement?

Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may be an aetiologically heterogenous disease. We confirmed elevated circulating IgG immune complexes, and altered IgG seroreactivities against human retroviral antigens (HIV-2 and HTLV immunoblots) in overlapping subgroups of patients. Together with preliminary findings of a positive polymerase chain reactivity for human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV.tax/rex) in blood leukocytes of 5 out of 14 sALS patients, we interpret this as evidence for a retroviral involvement in this relentlessly progressive, often asymmetrically spreading neurodegeneration. The possibility of a secondary phenomenon seems unlikely, yet cannot be completely ruled out.