Age at Epstein-Barr virus infection and Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen-1 antibodies in Swedish children

K Claire Simon; Shanie Saghafian-Hedengren; Eva Sverremark-Ekström; Caroline Nilsson; Alberto Ascherio

doi:10.1016/j.msard.2012.03.002

Age at Epstein-Barr virus infection and Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen-1 antibodies in Swedish children

Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2012 Jul;1(3):136-8. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2012.03.002. Epub 2012 Mar 31.

Authors

K Claire Simon¹, Shanie Saghafian-Hedengren², Eva Sverremark-Ekström², Caroline Nilsson³, Alberto Ascherio⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ksimon@hsph.harvard.edu.
² Department of Immunology, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet and Sachs' Children's Hospital, Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 25877079
DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2012.03.002

Abstract

There is strong evidence supporting a role for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the etiopathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Because of the strong association between antibody (Ab) titer against EBV nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) and late age at EBV infection, manifested as infectious mononucleosis (IM), and MS risk, we sought to determine whether age at primary EBV infection was associated with subsequent anti-EBNA1 Ab titer in a longitudinal study of Swedish children with EBV seropositivity and anti-EBNA1 Ab titers measured at ages 2, 5, and 10.

Keywords: Anti-EBNA; EBV seroconversion; Epidemiology; Epstein-Barr virus; Infectious mononucleosis; Multiple sclerosis.