Virus exposure and neurodegenerative disease risk across national biobanks, 2023, Kristin S. Levine et al

Highlights

• Identified 45 pairs of viral exposures associated with increased risk of NDDs
• Replicated 22 of the viral exposures/NDD pairings•
• Replicated the previously reported Epstein-Barr and multiple sclerosis association•
• Follow-up shows significantly elevated risk of NDD years after viral exposure

Summary
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.

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)01147-3#.Y8l-UfUWJ5U.twitter

 

Thread on the original, I think, study they are referring to.

https://www.s4me.info/threads/longi...ultiple-sclerosis-bjornevik-et-al-2022.24194/

 

We need a study like this on ME/CFS, to prove the viral assocation. It's a shame it hasn't been done already.

 

Really feels like a re-run of H. Pylori and ulcers, in that nearly everyone have it in their GI tract, but only a % develop ulcers because of conditions we don't know yet. EBV has mostly been understudied because of that, too common, almost everyone had it, how can you find differences when you have no one to compare to?

And it almost seems like the solution is to work the problem a different way, rather than insist that the current way of doing things is the only way. Medicine built everything on differences, but there aren't always any, or it's not always possible to find them without exhaustive big data, which sadly we can't use since most of the relevant data were simply never recorded and can't be found anywhere, only very expensive longitudinal prospective studies can find that, or if it just happened that this data point was recorded in a biobank.

Maybe there's a lot happening behind the scenes, but it really seems like the news of the cause of MS being found has mostly fallen flat, hasn't generated much work in response. Waiting on replication, I guess?

IMO it's clear that almost all disease has pathogenic triggers or mechanisms. Somewhere on the order of 90%+. Even most so-called "lifestyle" diseases. But wow is that idea unpopular.

 

Massive health-record review links viral illnesses to brain disease

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00181-3