According to a study published today in Nature Genetics, Eptsein-Barr virus (EBV)—most commonly known as the causative agent behind mononucleosis—also increases the risks for some people to develop seven other major diseases. These diseases are: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease, and type 1 diabetes.
The research, done by scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, took years to complete and required the creation of two new algorithms to analyze the massive datasets used by the team. The algorithms are now available for scientists to use for free online.
Infection with EBV is incredibly common, with more than 90% of the US population becoming infected with it before the age of 20; once infected, the virus stays with a person for life. EBV’s pathogenesis involves invading B cells, re-programming them and taking control of their function. In the current study, the transcription factors created by EBV in order to infect the body were analyzed. The paper shows that seven seemingly unrelated disease states share a common set of abnormal transcription factors each affected by an EBV protein called EBNA2. EBNA2-related clusters of transcription factors attaching to different portions of the genetic code appeared to increase the risk of developing one of the seven disorders.
"This discovery is probably fundamental enough that it will spur many other scientists around the world to reconsider this virus in these disorders," said John Harley, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology (CAGE) at Cincinnati Children's and a faculty member of the Cincinnati VA Medical Center. "As a consequence, and assuming that others can replicate our findings, that could lead to therapies, ways of prevention, and ways of anticipating disease that don't now exist."
While more work is required to determine exactly how much susceptibility to each of these diseases is determined by EBV, the implications for the study could be far-reaching. The findings may increase the priority of finding the first vaccine to EBV and inform scientists working on treatments for the seven related diseases. The cross-analysis done for the study also uncovered potential connections between a number of other diseases, which the authors hope will be picked up and explored by other researchers.
To help facilitate further research, all the data and results of the study are being made available online, along with the algorithms developed.