Longitudinal analysis reveals high prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus associated with multiple sclerosis, Bjornevik et al (2022)

Yea my "understanding"/grasp of this is very basic but you need a prospect study i.e. enroll people before they are infected and then find enough (large population required) who develop ME/CFS. Then go back to the samples take before, and after, developing ME/CFS and test these to see if there is a change in your EBV [or other pathogen] status before/after developing ME/CFS. Presumably the virus's/pathogens which do not increase risk act as a control i.e. you can look at these and there is no increase in risk of ME/CFS pre-post infection.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih...stein-barr-virus-may-cause-multiple-sclerosis

 

Sees a bit unusual replying to my own post but ---
I wonder if a key thing, in the MS/EBV study, was the fact that there's a biomarker for MS:
"To further elucidate the temporal relation between EBV infection and MS, we measured serum concentrations of neurofilament light chain (sNfL), a sensitive, albeit not disease-specific, biomarker of ongoing neuroaxonal degeneration"

Speculating - it may be more difficult to elucidate a relationship/non-relationship between EBV(pathogen) and ME/CFS i.e. since you need to have (ME/CFS) symptoms and that may take time post-infection.

 

Sorry, my memory is hopeless but there is the American study looking at student cohorts then following up those that develop mononucleosis/glandular fever for subsequent ME/ CFS which is I think currently on going. It is reported on here but I struggle to effectively use the search faculty.

 

Lenny Jason?

 

Thread on replication study here: https://www.s4me.info/threads/virus...l-biobanks-2023-kristin-s-levine-et-al.31599/

With recent findings connecting the Epstein-Barr virus to an increased risk of multiple sclerosis and growing concerns regarding the neurological impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we examined potential links between viral exposures and neurodegenerative disease risk.

Using time series data from FinnGen for discovery and cross-sectional data from the UK Biobank for replication, we identified 45 viral exposures significantly associated with increased risk of neurodegenerative disease and replicated 22 of these associations. The largest effect association was between viral encephalitis exposure and Alzheimer’s disease. Influenza with pneumonia was significantly associated with five of the six neurodegenerative diseases studied. We also replicated the Epstein-Barr/multiple sclerosis association.

Some of these exposures were associated with an increased risk of neurodegeneration up to 15 years after infection. As vaccines are currently available for some of the associated viruses, vaccination may be a way to reduce some risk of neurodegenerative disease.

My bolding

 

A large European grant has been granted to investigate the EBV-MS hypothesis in the project „Behind-MS“, led by EBV expert Dr. Henri-Jacques Delecluse, with research happening across 6 EU-countries. Whilst the research seems to be mostly focussed on cell- and animal models they will also be looking at genetic or infectious co-factors. If these researcher are indeed looking at infectious co-factors, perhaps it would also be possible to include ME/CFS in such an analysis? It appears Ascherio even had some interest in this, and @Robert 1973 messaged with him about this. Perhaps it would be possible to get lucky this time?

I also suppose these researchers will be quite happy to have gotten this grant before the ATA188 study yielded its negative result...