Most of us have encountered the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV; which infects cells of the immune system), and without long-lasting adverse effect. However, in some it's associated with certain cancers and has recently been identified as a prerequisite for the development of multiple sclerosis, the neurodegenerative disease in which the nerve-protective sheath of myelin is lost. This study, in mice and in human tissue, finds that EBV infection does induce B cells – immune system cells that EBV most commonly and permanently infects – that are myelin-reactive into the brain but they normally die because of a self-protective checkpoint. But, with the presence of one of EBV's proteins called LMP1, these myelin-reactive B cells could be rescued and therefore go on to become myelin destroying. Hence, providing an explanation for the incidence of MS depending on prior EBV infection. Shown are flu virus component-reactive B cells (red) interacting with other cells (cyan) that bear their target, part of this study's experimental process that allowed the conclusions about EBV to be drawn
Still from a video from work by Hyein Kim and Mika Schneider, and colleagues
Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Published in Cell, January 2026
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