Hypoxia reactivates latent EBV

January 22, 2012 at 10:06am

Perhaps researchers need to look more closely at hypoperfusion, or slowed cerebral blood flow, in MS.  Lower levels of oxygen can affect the brain in many ways.

There has been much made about the connection of the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and MS.  Most people carry the latent, or dormant version of this virus.  Nearly 95% of all adults carry the EBV virus.

A recent post mortem study showed reactivated EBV cells in active MS lesions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2118531/

In the seven MS patients' postmortem brain tissue studied, active MS lesions all contained Epstein-Barr virus infected cells.

Such cells weren't unique to MS, but were also detected in CNS tissue from two control patients with stroke, which the researchers pointed out is also a disease in which inflammation plays an important role.

Notably, Epstein-Barr virus-positive cells were present in much higher numbers in active MS lesions than expected in peripheral blood B cells, "which suggests that these cells are recruited to or accumulate in CNS infiltrates," Lünemann noted.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/multiple-sclerosis/0103/latent-virus-sparks-inflammation-in-ms.aspx

What might reactivate this virus and cause it to replicate in the B cells?

Why were these cells also in the brains of stroke patients?  It's not just about inflammation or the immune system.

Hypoxia.  Lack of oxygen reactivates EBV infection.  The ischemic injury of slowed blood flow, caused be stroke or CCSVI,  could reactivate EBV cells.

EBV in latent infection can be activated to lytic infection by hypoxia treatment.

http://www.journalofclinicalvirology.com/article/S1386-6532(06)00244-7/abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC419879/

In fact, researchers have found a link between pwMS who smoke, and the levels of EBV antigens, or ENBA titers. 

BNAC review: Venous stasis and EBV, viruses and bacteria

August 24, 2011 at 9:19pm

It is quite possible that venous stasis, or slowed cerebral drainage, could be responsible for the number of viruses (such as EBV and HHV) and bacteria (such as Cpn and Lyme) that have been associated with MS-by allowing these infectious agents to pass through the blood brain barrier.  Here is the Buffalo review on this topic:

The association between EBV infection and CCSVI has not yet been explored; however, it could be hypothesized that venous stasis in the superior saggital sinus due to extracranial outflow impairment could affect the drainage of bridging veins that pass through the subarachnoid space (near the meninges and EBV-infected B-cell follicles) and contribute to EBV activation. The venous stasis hypothesis in the SSS may contribute to understanding why so many different viruses and bacteria [3,111] have been linked to increased MS susceptibility risk over the last 50 years.

http://www.expert-reviews.com/doi/abs/10.1586/ern.11.117

The blood brain barrier is supposed to keep viruses and bacteria out of the central nervous system.  Venous stasis, or slowed blood flow, would explain why so many infectious cells are passing into the brain and spine in MS.  It just makes sense!   More studies ahead.

Joan