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Wednesday, March 26, 2003Meanwhile, the cause is still in doubt: Some confirmed the CDC's report Monday that a previously unrecognized coronavirus, a relative of the viral family responsible for many colds, is present in patients' tissues and body fluids. Others continued to find a member of a different family of viruses, paramyxoviruses, which also cause upper respiratory tract infections. "There is consistent finding of both pathogens in individual patients or of either of the pathogens in other patients," said Dr. Klaus Stohr, a WHO virologist. Leading hypotheses, he said, is that either of the infectious agents causes the disease, or both are present, coincidentally, because they are common viruses. But a third possibility, he said, is that both viruses work together in a previously unrecognized way. That last possibility seems most likely. Two viruses working in synergy. Other Viral News: Researchers think they may have found a link between multiple sclerosis and the Epstein-Barr Virus, the virus that causes infectious mononucleosis: The Harvard researchers wanted to know whether there was a way to demonstrate an association between Epstein-Barr and multiple sclerosis. They reviewed blood samples routinely drawn from US military personnel, identified 83 men and women with definite or probable cases of MS, and compared them with military personnel not diagnosed with the disease. They found that the MS patients had dramatically higher levels of Epstein-Barr antibodies, immune-system cells that target the virus. In fact, some of the patients had 20 times as many of those immune cells as people without MS. The researchers also discovered that those markers of elevated immune-system response were evident in the patients' blood years before they were diagnosed with MS. They can't say for sure why some patients' immune systems churn out a stronger response to Epstein-Barr, although researchers have suggested that people infected with the virus later in life have a more robust immune response. Harvard researchers and MS specialists said the findings do not establish a definite link between the virus and MS; rather, the data provide another valuable path of investigation. In fact, multiple sclerosis has many and varied risk associations: Scientists know that genes influence whether someone develops MS, but the role they have in the disease is not nearly so striking as in other conditions. That has led researchers to investigate what else might be involved. Along with theories about viruses and bacteria, there's the geography factor. MS occurs more frequently the farther someone lives from the equator, where the disease is virtually nonexistent. Scientists theorize that a sunshine deficit, and the resulting dearth of vitamin D, in colder climates might explain the phenomenon. ''There's lots of complexity here,'' said Dr. Patricia O'Looney, director of biomedical research at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. ''But knowing more about the disease will help us understand the disease more, answer more questions, and perhaps lead to more treatments.'' It is a complex disease. It’s one of those diseases that may take time to manifest itself, and even then its symptoms and signs can come and go, making diagnosis difficult. And our treatment isn’t any better. There’s still a long way to go in understanding it well enough to improve our treatment approach. posted by Sydney on 3/26/2003 09:47:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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