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As early as the 1990s, researchers proposed that a very common type of herpes virus—then known as human herpesvirus 6 (HHV6)—could be somehow involved in the development of multiple sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease characterized by autoimmune reactions against the protective myelin coating of the central nervous system.
However, the association between HHV6 and the disease soon became fraught with controversy as further studies produced discordant results. Complicating matters further, HHV6 turned out to be two related, but distinct variants—HHV6A and HHV6B. Because the two viruses are similar, for a while no method existed to tell whether a patient had been infected with one or the other, or both—making it difficult to draw a definitive association between either of the viruses and the disease.
I hope we rewoke the interest in this virus.
Now, a collaboration of European researchers has developed a technique capable of distinguishing antibodies ...
