{"id":3619,"date":"2023-05-22T20:24:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T01:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=3619"},"modified":"2023-05-22T20:24:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T01:24:47","slug":"multiple-sclerosis-new-evidence-for-the-role-of-epstein-barr-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/05\/22\/multiple-sclerosis-new-evidence-for-the-role-of-epstein-barr-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple sclerosis: new evidence for the role of Epstein-Barr Virus."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/multiple-sclerosis-new-evidence-for-the-role-of-glandular-fever-virus-205904\">The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An estimated\u00a02.8 million people\u00a0around the world have\u00a0multiple sclerosis\u00a0(MS), an autoimmune disease in which the immune system damages the brain and spinal cord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Symptoms include fatigue, vision disturbance, problems with mobility and balance and cognitive dysfunction. Many people who develop MS experience symptoms followed by a period of recovery, but over time the disease can progress to permanent disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exact causes of MS are unknown. But for decades scientists have suggested a link between MS and\u00a0Epstein-Barr virus\u00a0(EBV). This is an infection which, when contracted in childhood, generally doesn\u2019t cause symptoms. However, infection in adolescence can lead to glandular fever, also called the \u201ckissing disease\u201d or infectious mononucleosis (\u201cmono\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A\u00a02022 study\u00a0confirmed that people with MS have almost always been infected with EBV previously (generally the infection occurs\u00a0several years\u00a0before MS emerges). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But researchers are still debating exactly how this common virus could cause MS in certain people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A bit of background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When your body encounters an infection it generates an immune response so that next time you are exposed you will already have some protection from illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Normally, in healthy people, immune cells called T cells and B cells are generated against a single target such as one part of a virus or bacteria, and their job is to fight infection. B cells&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdanderson.org\/cancerwise\/t-cells--b-cells-and-the-immune-system.h00-159465579.html\">produce antibodies<\/a>&nbsp;which bind to and destroy invading viruses or bacteria.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conversation An estimated\u00a02.8 million people\u00a0around the world have\u00a0multiple sclerosis\u00a0(MS), an autoimmune disease in which the immune system damages the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include fatigue, vision disturbance, problems with mobility and balance and cognitive dysfunction. Many people who develop MS experience symptoms followed by a period of recovery, but over time the disease [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3620,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3619\/revisions\/3620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}