How a Single Study Proved the Cause of Multiple Sclerosis Is a Virus
It proved what we thought couldn’t be proved.
In 1868, Jean-Martin Charcot, a neurologist at the Hôpital de Salpétrière in France, first coined the disease “la sclérose en plaques,” which means multiple sclerosis (MS) — to distinguish it from another type of movement disorder later known as Parkinson’s disease.
Though described in 1868, the cause of MS puzzled scientists for more than a century. This is until a 2022 breakthrough study finally enlightens us that the cause is, oddly, the seemingly innocent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a common childhood virus that causes typical fever and sore throat.
Let’s see how one study single-handedly proves what we thought couldn’t be proved; how one study truly deserves to be called a breakthrough; and how thorough and near-perfect science is done.
A backdrop on multiple sclerosis (MS)
(Feel free to skip this part if you are already familiar with this disease.)
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disorder, where the myelin sheath (neuron’s insulator) breaks down (Figure 1). Such damage hinders neural transmission, causing chronic symptoms such as mobility issues, vision loss, muscle spasms…
