Viagra could reduce multiple sclerosis symptoms
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona | May 19, 2011 | Unknown
Posted on 05/19/2011 2:20:08 PM PDT by decimon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2722278/posts
“It's possible that vitamin D deficiency may lead to an abnormal response to the Epstein-Barr virus,” Ebers said.
He noted that low sunlight exposure in the spring was most strongly associated with MS risk. “Lower levels of UVB in the spring season correspond with peak risk of MS by birth month. More research should be done on whether increasing UVB exposure or using vitamin D supplements and possible treatments or vaccines for the Epstein-Barr virus could lead to fewer cases of MS.”
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/aaon-scv041211.php
“Epstein-Barr infection is marked by a period of active infection and replication the lytic stage where it causes acute disease, but it can also remain latent, and later emerge as an effective cancer-causing agent,” said Kazuko Nishikura, Ph.D., a professor in Wistar’s Gene Expression and Regulation program and senior author of the study. “It is a strategy that allows EBV to survive our initial immune response and await conditions, such as weakened immunity, to reemerge.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 95 percent of Americans are infected with EBV. While only a small portion of these infections ever lead to cancer, EBV has been associated with diseases that include cancers such as Burkitt lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and a form of sinus and throat cancer called nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
“Our findings suggest that EBV and humans have been engaged in a complex microRNA arms race, where EBV evolved microRNA that specifically exploit the human host cell's own microRNA machinery,” Nishikura said.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/twi-mdt102510.php
We still have many years until there is an effective vaccine
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=ebv+vaccine