الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common autoimmune inflammatory diseases of the CNS where nerves’ myelin sheath is damaged. Studies failed to define a precise etiology of the condition and various theories have been proposed; one of the most accepted is the exposure to viruses. This viral infection theory was based on the association with positive serological markers of viral infection with MS and on higher coexistence of both in the same geographical regions.
This study is novel in determining the association of RRMS with not only the presence of antibodies to EBV as an indicator of recent and past infection but also with positive detection of EBV gene sequences (EBNA1 and BHRF1) among MS Egyptian patients.
A high prevalence of EBV IgG has been identified among both cases and controls. Regarding the detection of VCA IgM it was significantly higher in the studied cases than controls. Significantly higher quantitative levels of VCA IgM among RRMS cases were detected compared to controls. Interestingly, our study revealed that BHRF1 gene sequence detection by real time PCR was significantly higher among the studied cases as compared to controls, and more among remitting cases than in relapsing ones. On the other hand the EBNA1 latent gene sequence was found to be more among relapsing cases.
Thus this study supports the possible relation between EBV and Multiple Sclerosis disease.