A large body of evidence suggests that infection with EBV, the causative agent of glandular fever, has a role in the cause of many chronic autoimmune diseases, including MS. Professor Michael Pender has published a hypothesis proposing that MS occurs in individuals genetically susceptible to the effects of B cell (lymphocyte that make antibodies) infection by EBV; this results in an increased number of infected B cells capable of making antibodies against the brain and promoting the survival of another type of lymphocyte (T cell) which also attacks the brain (Pender M. Trends Immunol 2003; 24: 584). This project aims to test an important component of the hypothesis that explores the T cell responses against EBV in patients with MS. Our results so far indicate that MS patients have an increased level of EBV infection and decreased T-cell immunity to EBV. The significance of our studies is that they will shed light on the role of EBV in the development of MS and may lead to new and effective treatments for MS.
The financial support provided by MS Research Australia has allowed our group at the Neuroimmunology Research Centre (The University of QLD) to advance with important research investigating immune responses to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in MS.
A large body of evidence suggests that infection with EBV, the causative agent of glandular fever, may have a role in the cause of MS. (Pender M. Trends Immunol 2003; 24: 584). This project aims to investigate immune responses to EBV in patients with MS, with particular interest in T cell immunity against EBV, the main immune response responsible for controlling the latent EBV infection in non-symptomatic subjects. During the project we have collected and stored samples from 149 MS patients, 76 healthy subjects and 29 patients with other neurological diseases. Our findings show that all MS patients, except one (97.7%), are seropositive for EBV, which is indicative of previous EBV infection, compared to 91.2% of seropositive healthy controls. In extension to these findings, we are currently investigating the quantitative levels of antibodies against EBV and myelin peptides. We have also found that MS patients have a higher EBV viral load in peripheral blood compared to healthy controls. In view of these results, we are investigating the T cell response to EBV, to test whether a defect in T cell immunity exists in patients with MS. For this we are measuring the T cell response against EBV viral peptides with the very sensitive IFN-gamma ELISPOT assay. We have also developed an assay to test the T-cell immune response to each subject’s own EBV-infected B cells. The significance of our studies is that they will shed light on the role of EBV in the development of MS and may lead to new and effective treatments for MS.
Updated: 06 January, 2006