MS long has been thought to be an autoimmune disease, in which a foreign invader such as a virus causes the body to produce antibodies that injure its own tissues. For many years, a variance of the measles virus was a suspect as the cause of MS, but Lobeck said that now has fallen out of favor. But some virus or combination of viruses remain as the primary suspects by MS researchers, she said. Past studies have been unable to confirm that, he said. It would be nice if this were true.
More study needs to be done.
Knox and Carrigan initially found the virus in brain and lymph node tissue and then in blood samples in cooperative research with scientists in Kansas City, Lobeck said. They then approached her and the Medical College and asked them to look for it in the blood of their MS population, she said. That is the research that is under way. Infection with the HHV-6 virus generally does not cause any outward symptoms. It is of the same genus as the herpes simplex virus, which causes cold sores or fever blisters.