Epstein-Barr virus can cause glandular fever, also known as infectious mononucleosis
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A vaccine that protects against the widespread Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which causes glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis or “mononucleosis”), has shown promise in mice ) and is associated with some serious health conditions. It may have an advantage over other experimental EPV vaccines because it targets a different aspect of the immune system rather than just antibodies.
About 95% of the world’s adults are infected with EBV, a herpes virus that is usually spread through saliva. It causes glandular fever, which often results in symptoms such as high body temperature, severe sore throat, and extreme fatigue. In recent years, EBV has been increasingly linked to multiple sclerosis (MS) and various cancers, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma and some lymphomas. As a result, scientists have been developing a vaccine for Epstein-Barr virus, but it has not yet been approved.
“For most early-stage (EBV) vaccines, the main goal is to induce antibodies, similar to how the COVID-19 vaccine or influenza vaccine works,” said Rajiv Khanna of the Berghofer Institute of Medical Research in Australia. He said, One of the unique things about EBV is that it can hide within the body’s antibody-producing immune cells, called B cells, which means the infection can remain with a person throughout their life.
To solve this problem, Khanna and his colleagues designed a vaccine that generates antibodies against the virus and Triggering another type of immune cell, called a T cell, to destroy the B cells in which EBV multiplies.
In mice, the vaccine produced EBV antibodies and T cells more than seven months after immunization. It also prevented tumor growth in another group of mice induced to develop EBV-associated lymphoma.
Researchers hope to explore whether vaccines can be tweaked to prevent multiple sclerosis. In the meantime, they hope to begin human testing of existing vaccines within the next two years.
If the vaccine is proven to target EBV in human cells, it could be valuable in treating EBV-related cancers, says Paul Farrell of Imperial College London. It could also prevent infection itself in younger people who haven’t yet contracted the virus, he said.
However, its potential to fight multiple sclerosis is more complicated because “we don’t yet fully understand the immune mechanisms that cause and control this disease,” Farrell said.
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