Premium
Absence of entero‐ and cardioviral RNA in multiple sclerosis brain tissue
Author(s) -
Dessau R. B.,
Nielsen L. P.,
Frederiksen J. L.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1997.tb00211.x
Subject(s) - multiple sclerosis , autopsy , etiology , pathogenesis , epidemiology , medicine , disease , pathology , brain tissue , infectious agent , immunology
Objectives ‐ Epidemiological evidence suggests that an infectious agent may be involved in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Picornaviruses are possible candidates for an etiological agent, because of their neurotropic properties and ability to cause chronic infections. Materials and methods‐ Autopsy brain tissue from 25 patients with clinically definite MS and 33 control patients without inflammatory neurological disease was tested with reverse transcription PCR specific for enteroviruses and cardioviruses. Results ‐ All specimens were found negative. Conclusion ‐ These results do not support the theory of a persisting entero‐ or cardioviral infection as the cause of MS as we found no evidence of the presence of entero‐ or cardioviral genomes in the brains from MS patients.