Department of Immunopathology of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Department of the Medical Genetics, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 28;15(10):e0240601. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240601. eCollection 2020.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system of unclear etiology, but there is some evidence that viral infections could be responsible for triggering autoimmune mechanisms against myelin. We searched for viral RNA and DNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 34 MS patients and 13 controls using RT-PCR/PCR against common neurotropic viruses. In addition, shotgun DNA- and RNA-based metagenomics were done in 13 MS patients and 4 controls. Specific quantitative real-time RT-PCR/PCR testing revealed the presence of viral nucleic acid in seven (20.59%) MS patients and in one (7.69%) control patient. In MS patients the most frequently detected was human herpesvirus type 6 (HHV-6; 3 cases; 8.82%); followed by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV; 2 cases; 5.88%), varicella zoster virus (VZV; 1 case; 2.94%) and Enterovirus (EV; 1 case; 2.94%). The single identified virus among controls was EBV (7.69%). DNA and RNA metagenomic assays did not identify any known eukaryotic viruses even though three of the analyzed samples were low-level positive by specific quantitative real-time PCR. In conclusion, we detected the presence of Herpesviridae and occasionally Enteroviridae in CSF from patients with MS but their prevalence was not significantly higher than among controls. Metagenomic analysis seems to be less sensitive than real-time RT-PCR/PCR and it did not detect any potential viral pathogens.
多发性硬化症（MS）是一种病因不明的中枢神经系统慢性免疫介导脱髓鞘疾病，但有一些证据表明病毒感染可能导致针对髓鞘的自身免疫机制。我们使用针对常见神经营养病毒的 RT-PCR/PCR 在 34 名 MS 患者和 13 名对照者的脑脊液（CSF）中寻找病毒 RNA 和 DNA。此外，对 13 名 MS 患者和 4 名对照者进行了基于 DNA 和 RNA 的宏基因组学测序。特定的定量实时 RT-PCR/PCR 检测显示，7 名（20.59%）MS 患者和 1 名（7.69%）对照者存在病毒核酸。在 MS 患者中，最常检测到的是人疱疹病毒 6 型（HHV-6；3 例；8.82%）；其次是 EBV（2 例；5.88%）、水痘带状疱疹病毒（VZV；1 例；2.94%）和肠病毒（EV；1 例；2.94%）。对照组唯一鉴定出的病毒是 EBV（7.69%）。DNA 和 RNA 宏基因组学检测并未鉴定出任何已知的真核病毒，尽管其中 3 份分析样本通过特定的实时定量 PCR 呈低水平阳性。总之，我们在 MS 患者的 CSF 中检测到疱疹病毒科和偶尔的肠道病毒科的存在，但它们的流行率并不明显高于对照组。宏基因组学分析的敏感性似乎低于实时 RT-PCR/PCR，并且没有检测到任何潜在的病毒病原体。
