This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

I was in contact today with one of my neuros who is holding an EBV / MS think-tank in May. He said that a lot of research in this area had been undertaken by a Dr Sven haahr (Danish). I did a search on Dr haahr and the first article on the list was:

<shortened url>

I think the phrase is what goes around comes around!

Ian

Well now that's interesting a later exposure vs an earlier one is somehow connected to MS. I personally had EBV at 16 years. Happily both my kids got it by puberty. This ties in nicely with the epidemiological evidence that it matters where you are before age 15 but after it matters not in terms of MS risk. It makes you wonder what it has to do with the vitamin D angle as lower d is immune stimulating and high d suppressive.
Thank you for posting this. It is interesting
marie

Marie,

Not sure how the Vit D link works.

There was some research posted today on another site about birth dates. You have the highest risk of getting MS in May and the lowest risk in November (I've seen this analysis before). Given that May births would have been carried in the winter (northern countries) perhaps the mother was Vit D difficient (no sun) and this contributes in some way.

I also saw some research posted on the NMMS late last year which showed that people from the Carribean who had gone to France, had a much higher chance of getting MS when they returned to their islands. It appears that they lost some protection.

Also, in the US, some of the immigrants from counttries such as Mexico etc are experiencing much higher levels of MS that when they were in their original country.

Of course genes plays a role and Afro-Americans (usually having Eurpean and African ancestry) get MS, but those from Africa have much lower rates. It was interesting to see that research in genes is focusing on those Afro-Americans with MS to find out what European genes have contributed to them getting MS.

So a complex picture, with genes, Vit D, and possibiby a virus at the wrong time of life giving you this disease. I've often grumbled about the researchers but I don't envy them.

Ian

Just a thought but could it be that vitamin D is collaborative in neuroprotection somehow? Our bodies are adjusted to expect certain levels and when we don't get it the protection is affected somehow???

J.

If EBV is actively involved in MS, it would theoretically be consistent with the potentional benfit of PPARgamma agonists.

I can't find any specific studies of the effect of PPARgamma on EBV, but there seems to be general information that PPARgamma suppresses virus replication including HIV, so maybe also for EBV ? That would an interesting one to examine !!

Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor Agonists Inhibit HIV-1 Replication in Macrophages by Transcriptional and Post-transcriptional Effects*

<shortened url>


"In addition, there are data in the literature suggesting that natural PPAR agonists suppress replication of viruses other than HIV. PGA is reported to inhibit Sendai virus replication in African green monkey kidney cells (69). PGE1 and PGE2, which can be converted to PGA1 and PGA2, respectively, have also been demonstrated to inhibit measles virus replication in Vero cells (70). Herpes simplex virus replication is reported to be inhibited by PGD2, 7-PGA1, and 12-PGJ2 (71, 72). "