Background and objectives: Multiple Sclerosis is the most common inflammatory demyelinating and degenerative autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. The cause of multiple sclerosis is unknown but several viruses have been proposed as a trigger for multiple sclerosis and lately Epstein- Barr virus has been recently associated with the onset of multiple sclerosis we assess the relation between Epstein-Barr virus infection and multiple sclero- sis. We assess the relation between Epstein-Barr virus infection and multiple sclerosis. Methods: In present study we assess the Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen IgG antibody titer level by ELISA technique in both Multiple Sclerosis patients (n= 50) and healthy controls (n= 30). Results: The results of the present study demonstrated increasing mean titer of EBNA IgG antibodies in patients (21.32) comparing with healthy control (15.37) (P value= 0.003) with neither effect of gender nor age. This study demonstrates the statistically significant relation between new relapses and clinical presentations of multiple sclerosis relapses (P value 0.05) also demonstrated a significant difference be- tween different types of symptoms (P=0.0362) and EBNA IgG antibodies concentration while the EDSS and number of relapses had no significant differences.Conclusions: This study revealed the possible role of EBV during the course of multiple sclerosis an autoimmune disease via anti-EBNA IgG seropositivity that correlated with type of attack or relapse.
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