Viruses and multiple sclerosis

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Abstract
Animal models illustrate how viruses and host genetic factors may interact to cause immune‐mediated demyelination. Similar mechanisms may take place in at least some forms of multiple sclerosis, a disease that is histopathologically heterogeneous. No ‘multiple sclerosis virus’ has been found yet, although recent data on human herpesvirus‐6 antigens in multiple sclerosis brain warrant further investigation. Multiple sclerosis associated retrovirus, a recently described retroviral sequence isolated from multiple sclerosis material, is a member of the endogenous retrovirus‐9 family. The association between the expression of this virus associated retrovirus and multiple sclerosis is only tentative. Curr Opin Neurol 11:287–291. © 1998 Lippincott–Raven Publishers