Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disease
of the central nervous system (CNS). The etiology of MS is not well understood, but
it's likely one of the genetic and environmental factors. Approximately 85% of patients
have relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), while 10–15% have primary progressive MS (PPMS).
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), members of the human Herpesviridae
family, are strong candidates for representing the macroenvironmental factors associated
with MS) pathogenesis. Antigenic mimicry of EBV involving B-cells has been implicate
in MS risk factors and concomitance of EBV and HHV-6 latent infection has been associated
to inflammatory MS cascade. To verify the possible role of EBV and HHV-6 as triggering
or aggravating factors in RRMS and PPMS, we compare their frequency in blood samples
collected from 166 MS patients.
The presence of herpes DNA was searched by real-time PCR (qPCR). The frequency of
EBV and HHV-6 in MS patients were 1.8% (3/166) and 8.9% (14/166), respectively. Among
the positive patients, 100% (3/3) EBV and 85.8% (12/14) HHV-6 are RRMS and 14.4% (2/14)
HHV-6 are PPMS. Detection of EBV was 1.2% (2/166) and HHV-6 was 0.6% (1/166) in blood
donors. About clinical phenotype of these patients, incomplete multifocal myelitis,
and optic neuritis were the main CNS manifestations. These are the first data about
concomitant infection of these viruses in MS patients from Brazil. Up to date, our
findings confirm a higher prevalence in female with MS and a high frequency of EBV
and HHV-6 in RRMS patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 01, 2023
Accepted:
April 30,
2023
Received in revised form:
April 18,
2023
Received:
November 20,
2022
Identification
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© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
