Association of human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) with multiple sclerosis: Increased IgM response to HHV-6 early antigen and detection of serum HHV-6 DNA (original) (raw)

Nature Medicine volume 3, pages 1394–1397 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

Viruses have long been suggested to be involved in the etiology of multiple sclerosis (MS)1. This suggestion is based on (1) epidemiological evidence of childhood exposure to infectious agents and increase in disease exacerbations with viral infection1,2; (2) geographic association of disease susceptibility with evidence of MS clustering3–4; (3) evidence that migration to and from high-risk areas influences the likelihood of developing MS (refs. 2, 5); (4) abnormal immune responses to a variety of viruses6,7; and (5) analogy with animal models and other human diseases in which viruses can cause diseases with long incubation periods, a relapsing-remitting course, and demyelination1,2. Many of these studies involve the demonstration of increased antibody titers to a particular virus, whereas some describe isolation of virus from MS material. However, no virus to date has been definitively associated with this disease. Recently, human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), a newly described beta-herpes virus that shares homology with cytomegalovirus (CMV)8, has been reported to be present in active MS plaques9. In order to extend these observations, we have demonstrated increased IgM serum antibody responses to HHV-6 early antigen (p41/38) in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), compared with patients with chronic progressive MS (CPMS), patients with other neurologic disease (OND), patients with other autoimmune disease (OID), and normal controls. Given the ubiquitous nature of this virus and the challenging precedent of correlating antiviral antibodies with disease association10, these antibody studies have been supported by the detection of HHV-6 DNA from samples of MS serum as a marker of active viral infection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Viral Immunology Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Building 10, Room 5B-16, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA
    Samantha S. Soldan, Rossana Berti, Peter A. Calabresi, Meghan B. Brennan, Heidi W. Maloni, Henry F. Mcfarland & Steven Jacobson
  2. Specialty Laboratories, Inc., Santa Monica, California, 90404-3900, USA
    Nazi Salem, Hun-Chi Lin & Madhumita Patnaik
  3. Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland Medical School, 725 West Lombard Street, Room S307, Baltimore, Maryland, 21201, USA
    Paola Secchiero & Louis Flamand

Authors

  1. Samantha S. Soldan
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  2. Rossana Berti
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  3. Nazi Salem
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  4. Paola Secchiero
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  5. Louis Flamand
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  6. Peter A. Calabresi
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  7. Meghan B. Brennan
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  8. Heidi W. Maloni
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  9. Henry F. Mcfarland
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  10. Hun-Chi Lin
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  11. Madhumita Patnaik
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  12. Steven Jacobson
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Soldan, S., Berti, R., Salem, N. et al. Association of human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) with multiple sclerosis: Increased IgM response to HHV-6 early antigen and detection of serum HHV-6 DNA.Nat Med 3, 1394–1397 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1297-1394

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