Roseoloviruses, which commonly infect humans, have been proposed to cause a range of autoimmune diseases, but how they might do this has yet to be nailed down. Now, a study shows that in mice, infection with a roseolovirus leads to the development of autoimmune gastritis later in life, demonstrating a causal link between roseolovirus infection and autoimmunity. The results appeared February 28 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Nearly everyone has been infected at some point with the human roseoloviruses HHV-6 and HHV-7. The resulting illness is usually a childhood infection that is characterized by a few days of high fever followed by a rash, but the virus sticks around in the body after those acute symptoms resolve. Previous research has suggested that roseolovirus infection plays a role in autoimmune diseases, and more recent studies suggest human roseolovirus may be a trigger for the severe autoimmune disorder systemic sclerosis. However, ...
