You know, a lot of folks think that the COVID-19 vaccines were developed very quickly.  And, that’s true, if one only looks at the last step(s) in the process.

But, as I’ve written, mRNA was first characterized back in the late 1950s- by a group of 11 scientists in three separate groups.  Finding a way to keep mRNA from being destroyed by the body (and, therefore, viable as a treatment modality) only occurred some 40 years later by two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Drs. Kariko and Weissman).  And, then more than 20 years later came the vaccine development.  (And, there will be many more based upon this mRNA technology.  Perhaps even the subject of today’s blog post.)

Today’s post also has its roots from long ago.  Back in 1985, folks at Walter Reed (it was still a separate facility on a grandiose campus between 16th Street and Georgia Avenue in DC) began collecting, screening, and storing blood drawn from troops.  As of today, there are more than 60 million samples from some 10 million troops in the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR).

And, about two decades ago, an hypothesis posed by Dr. Alberto Ascherio (Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical) began to be tested.  His idea?  The cause of multiple scleroris (MS) a disease which takes a decade or two to manifest, could be discerned if one examined those blood samples.  MS is chronic inflammatory (and neurodegenerative) disease, one for which most patients manifest symptoms in their late 20s and early 30s.   (His reasoning?  There were multiple blood draws from the same individuals from when they were in their teens, twenties and thirties which would make the changes more visible.)

Of course, this hypothesis relied on other theories.  The fact is that brain inflammation is a fairly common side effect of viral infections.  (You do realize that is what is going on now among those who have been afflicted by COVID-19.)

Back in the mid-2000s, Ascherio began associating Epstein Barr (EBV, a herpesvirus) with multiple sclerosis (MS).  After all, EBV had been identified in the death zones of nerves (demyelinated) from folks who suffered from MS.  Moreover, copious levels of antibodies to EBV were found among folks diagnosed with MS.

The problem is that not everyone who contracts EBV develops MS.  But, using the Walter Reed repository, effecting a time resolution of the blood samples displays the sequence of events.  (This concept is akin to the Webb Telescope looking at the sky to discern what happened billions of years ago.)

And, Ascherio’s team found that NfL, neurofilament light chain, thread-like pieces of neurons, are shed by folks with MS.  And, those chains are found in CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) and/or the blood.  These NfL levels rise years before MS is manifested, about 6 years according to this study.  And, NfL levels are not augmented by EBV infection.

Now, a new study by Acherio’s group (Drs. K Bjornevik, M Cortese, and KL Munger [Chan School of Public Health/Harvard Medical]; BC Healy, MJ Mina, SJ Elledge (Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Med); J. Kuhle (University of Basel, Switzerland); and D.J. Niebuhr and AI Scher (University of Health Sciences, Uniform Services Medical School, Bethesda, MD) just published their findings in Science.  After examining some 10 million blood samples from the repository, 955 manifested MS- not in the initial blood tests, though.  Those who contracted EBV had a 32 fold greater propensity for MS than those that didn’t.  NfL also increased after one had contracted EBV.

This is one of the strongest factors linking EBV to MS.

Maybe now we can consider developing a vaccine against EBV.  After all, we have a vaccine against HPV, which is reducing the levels of cervical cancer, genital warts, and cancers of the mouth and throat.

Remember this has been a long time coming….

 

 

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