A newly published paper in the venerable journal Science suggests a link between Epstein-Barr virus, the incredibly common virus that causes mononucleosis, and multiple sclerosis. The same issue of Science also contains an editorial article seeking to explicate the paper to non-biochemists.

The super-short version is that researchers dug through the medical records of 10 million United States armed services personnel going back ~20 years, and discovered evidence suggesting that people who have been infected with EBV are 32 times more likely to develop MS thereafter, "comparable to the increase in risk of getting lung cancer from heavy smoking."

Technically speaking, what the authors of the study are asserting is not that EBV causes MS, although it's a tempting shorthand. It looks to me like what they believe is that the immune malfunction's origin is genetic, but EBV infection triggers MS in people who are genetically predisposed to it.

Meanwhile, it so happens that Moderna, one of the companies making a COVID-19 vaccine, has been trying the same developmental approach on a vaccine for EBV, which is just now entering early trials. That does those of us who already have MS fuck-all good in itself, of course, but if this line of inquiry is borne out by follow-up research, a better understanding of the condition's underlying mechanisms may emerge, which opens the possibility that someone might someday figure out how to turn it off. Reversing the damage already done is still probably too much to hope for, but heading off further degeneration would be something, all the same.

I'll be honest, I'm not as excited by this result for my own sake as I would have been 10 years ago, because I can plot the typical pace of medical science's advance vs. my own actuarial possibilities, and I don't like where I see those two curves most likely crossing. But who knows? I didn't think monoclonal antibodies would amount to anything within my lifetime either, and the damn things are everywhere now.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

This is an incredible development, and I really hope it pans out with something interesting for EBV-related conditions as well as MS. Part of me is now wondering if there's a connection between this and stuff like fibromyalgia and myalgic encephalopathy, given the research currently underway with regards to "long Covid" and post-viral fatigue syndrome.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

My various friends with ME/CFS certainly seem to think it's a likely avenue of investigation.

Kinda wondering if certain things like parkinson's and the like are implicated too. Having some real lovecraftian-horror vibes < think The Alchemist, but with mono parties instead of a wizard > and wondering just how many "things that run in families" derive from....this.

I find this whole avenue a fascinating one, although I do not really have much knowledge of medicine.

In a more general sense, I think it's helpful to highlight just how much we still don't know. It's good to re-examine things and keep an open mind.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge