In part one of this series, Dr. Justin Abbatemarco and Dr. Paulus Rommer discuss the relationship between Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis, as well as the questions that still remain unanswered.

Show citation:

Vietzen H, Kühner LM, Berger SM, et al. Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies to Differentiate Multiple Sclerosis From Other Neuroinflammatory Diseases. JAMA Neurol. Published online March 9, 2026. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2026.0240

Show transcript:

Dr. Justin Abbatemarco:

Hello and welcome. I just finished interviewing Paulus Rommer on his article published in JAMA Neurology, Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies to Differentiate Multiple Sclerosis From Other Neuroinflammatory Diseases. Paulus, could we maybe talk about this relationship that we've understood about multiple sclerosis and Epstein-Barr virus? And maybe the points that still remain unanswered?

Dr. Paulus Romme:

There's a very long story behind this because in 1868, Pierre Marie, a student of Charcot was talking about that multiple sclerosis is a sequelae of an infection disorder. By this, we now know that there's a long story. There have been associations between infectious mononucleosis, EBV infection, multiple sclerosis. Also, the migration studies really fits very well in this. So there have been an association, but then, in 2022, there was the US Army study, Bjornevik and Ascherio, who really have shown that there is almost no multiple sclerosis without EBV infection. But still, we do not know why almost all of our patients have EBV infection, but only very small subset have multiple sclerosis. But this is very important to get a deeper understanding, but this is still unknown.

Dr. Justin Abbatemarco:

This story of EPV and multiple sclerosis continues to evolve. And your work, as we talked about on the podcast, has really helped inform that discussion as well. And we still need to understand, outside of the initiation of the disease, how it drives the pathophysiology years after that initial infection. But it's really helpful to understand this in the larger set and now maybe using it as a biomarker to help us with our other neuroinflammatory diseases, so we'll discuss that the next episode. Again, I was just speaking with Paulas Rommer on his article in JAMA Neurology, Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies to Differentiate Multiple Sclerosis From Other Neuroinflammatory Diseases. Paulus, thank you.