The investigation of antibodies and/or nucleic acids belonging to EBV, CMV, vzv, hsv-1, hsv-2, hhv-6b and borellia burgdorferi in serum and/or csf samples of patients with multiple sclerosis

Objective: Although the reason is unknown, multiple sclerosis is considered as a disase with multifactorial etiology including genetic and environmental factors. The most commonly cited environmental factors are infectious agents. The main objective of this study is to detect antibodies and/ or nucleic acids belong to Human Herpesvirus and spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi, having high potential to play a role in the etiology of MS, in the samples of serum and/or CSF of patients with MS and to compare the results with patients with Inflammatory neurological disease other than MS and subjects without any organic neurological disease with the same demographic characteristics. The secondary objective of the study is to investigate the correlation between disease-related variables such as duration, age of onset, disease type, disability and positive data of antibodies and/or nucleic acids belonging to Human Herpesvirus and Borrelia burgdoferi in samples of serum and/or CSF of patients with MSMethods: EBV VCA IgG, EBNA IgG, EA IgG, CMV IgG, VZV IgG, HSV1 IgG, HSV2 IgG, HHV6B IgG and Borelia Burgdorferi IgM/IgG antibodies was investigated by ELISA and nucleic acids belonging to these agents was investigated by PCR in the serum samples of patients with MS (n=44), patients with Inflammatory neurological disease other than MS (n=23) and subjects without any organic neurological disease (n=23) in this study. In addition, nucleic acids belonging to these agents was investigated by PCR in the CSF samples of some cases from MS group (n=17) and control 1 group (n=20).Results: Comparing rates of EBV, CMV, VZV, HSV-1, HSV-2 and Borrelia burgdorferi antibody positivity in the serum samples of patients with MS and control groups there was no significant difference between groups. However, rates of HHV-6B antibody positivity in patients with MS was significantly lower comparing with other groups. Comparing rates of HHV-6B antibody positivity in patients with MS with EDSS , age of onset and disease duration time of these patients, there was no significant correlation.Conclusion: In this study, rates of EBV, CMV, VZV, HSV-1, HSV-2 and spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi serum antibody positivity, rates of serum and CSF nucleic acid positivity was similar in the groups of patients with MS and control subjects. Only HHV-6B IgG positivity in serum samples of MS patients was found significantly lower compare with control subjects.