2022/01/14 by Kjetil Bjørnevik, Marianna Cortese, Brian C. Healy +8 · 5 citations
Medicine · #Biology #Biomarker #Clinically isolated syndrome #Cohort #Cytomegalovirus #Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research #Demyelinating disease #Disease #Epstein–Barr virus #Etiology #Herpesviridae #Herpesvirus Infections and Treatments #Human cytomegalovirus #Immunology #Internal medicine #Medicine #Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies #Multiple sclerosis #Seroconversion #Viral disease #Virology #Virus
paper · doi:10.1126/science.abj8222
openalex publication_date 2022/01/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system of unknown etiology. We tested the hypothesis that MS is caused by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in a cohort comprising more than 10 million young adults on active duty in the US military, 955 of whom were diagnosed with MS during their period of service. Risk of MS increased 32-fold after infection with EBV but was not increased after infection with other viruses, including the similarly transmitted cytomegalovirus. Serum levels of neurofilament light chain, a biomarker of neuroaxonal degeneration, increased only after EBV seroconversion. These findings cannot be explained by any known risk factor for MS and suggest EBV as the leading cause of MS.