Status: 04.11.2022 05:39 a.m
More than 90 percent of all people will become infected with the Epstein-Barr virus during their lifetime. Although most infections are harmless, the virus can also cause multiple sclerosis. A vaccine will be tested for the first time next year.
Compared to a virus such as Ebola, which is fatal in 90 percent of all cases, the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) appears at first glance to be a harmless bore, says Professor Wolfgang Hammerschmidt from the Helmholtz Center in Munich.
The Epstein-Barr virus is a very, very common, widespread herpes virus. These herpes viruses have unusual properties mainly because they were probably able to adapt to great apes and then ultimately to humans over millions of years. That means the evolutionary concept here is the success of infecting as many people as possible.
In contrast to acutely infectious viruses, which disappear from the body after an infection, the EBV virus remains in the organism. Undercover, so to speak, it nests in human cells for life – in most cases without making them ill. But that only applies if the first contact with the virus occurs as an infant or young child.
Late first contact can have serious consequences
A later first contact, for example in puberty, is less harmless. Glandular fever is the name of the disease that keeps those affected bedridden with fever for weeks and, in 13 percent of cases, leads to a severe exhaustion syndrome that lasts for months. The aim is therefore to prevent illness in this age group, according to Wolfgang Hammerschmidt.
Together with other researchers, the professor has developed a vaccine against the virus to prevent glandular fever, which is scientifically called infectious mononucleosis. The vaccine, which is already being produced by a pharmaceutical company, is scheduled to go into clinical trials next year, i.e. be tested on humans.
The vaccine does not contain any real parts of the virus, but manufactured virus-like particles. Because this is a new process, Wolfgang Hammerschmidt admits that, despite promising data from the laboratory, there is a real risk that the vaccine will not be as effective as expected. But:
On the other hand, we have the great advantage here that we can produce a very complex vaccine that contains 70 percent of all the proteins of this virus. That means we are taking a completely new approach that has actually never been taken before for vaccine production in this form.
EBV can play critical roles in MS
Professor Nicholas Schwab from the University Hospital in Münster also considers vaccination against the Epstein-Barr virus to be extremely desirable. With his most recent research, he was able to confirm what other scientists had suspected: that EBV can play a crucial role in the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis, MS for short. The Münster researchers discovered this connection via a detour: They examined how well the T cells of the immune system are armed against the virus:
And then we found out that the MS patients not only had a normal amount of different T cells against the Epstein-Barr virus, but also more. So it has an unusually high number of different receptors. And that’s just the case with Epstein-Barr and not with other viruses we’ve looked at. And from this we concluded that the immune response in MS patients against the Epstein-Barr virus is broader than it really should be.
Broader base means: The immune system reacted more strongly than would be necessary to get the virus under control. After this defense phase, however, the overly activated defense cells remain in the body and disrupt processes such as nerve transmission, which can then lead to multiple sclerosis. A disease with glandular fever increases the risk of overactivated immune cells because the immune system apparently no longer copes well with the virus in this later phase of human development.
If you go through an EBV infection earlier and then that infection is more normal then that’s better for us. If it expires too late, you can get mononucleosis, which is a very big risk factor for developing MS.
More and more people are suffering from MS in Germany, and the trend is rising. Just like the cases of glandular fever. The researchers explain this phenomenon by saying that the first contact with the Epstein-Barr virus is continuously being postponed due to good hygiene and medical care. And that’s why the EBV has long ceased to be a harmless bore for researchers.