| خلاصه مقاله | Introduction: The role of bacterial and viral agents especially Epstein - Barr virus (EBV) in multiple sclerosis (MS) has been highlighted in several studies. However, this finding is not universal. The aim of our study was investigation EBV in MS patients in Tabriz.
Material & Methods: In a case-control study performed at two tertiary university hospitals at Tabriz, Iran, Razi and Imam, 130 subjects were enrolled. Of these 65 subjects were MS patients serving as the case group, and 65 subjects were healthy individuals serving as the control group. After the DNA extraction from all samples, the EBER region of the EBV genome was used as the primer for the detection of EBV in all samples by PCR. DNA extracts from B95 cell, and sterile distilled water were used as positive and negative controls, respectively.
Results: Our results showed that no patients in the control group had previous or active EBV infection, as demonstrated by history taking and EBV-DNA extraction from mononuclear cells, respectively. However, in the patient's group, two (3.1%) patients had a previous history of EBV infection, and 4 (6.2%) patients were found to be positive for EBV-DNA.
Conclusion: Beside of our founding significant differences in prevalence of between MS patients and healthy controls in the rate of current or previous EBV infection was not observed. The results should be interpreted with caution, though; as this study has some shortcomings such as limited sample size, type viruses, and so on, which should be addressed before the incorporation of these findings to the practice. |