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Breakthrough antibody discovery targets Epstein-Barr virus, which infects 95% of the world’s population
https://scitechdaily.com/breakthrough-discovery-targets-virus-infecting-95-of-the-worlds-population/
From the article:
It's not a vaccine yet, but the finding has immediate application in cancer and transplant medicine. I'm not thrilled with the research group's filing for IP protection on naturally occurring antibodies, but the state of prevailing law favors fully described antibody function patents.
From skimming the Wikipedia article, it looks like Moderna (of COVID vaccine fame) is working on that vaccine! They're in phase one clinical trials (start of human testing) now for two variants.
I think antibody treatments are normally reserved for folks that're immune deficient, or require a treatment for an acute case, so I'm not sure if this finding + further progress on it will lead to a vaccine? But I'm also hopeful that they find a way to use something similar to clear up dormant infections! Since the youth will grow up immune via vaccine anyways 😅
EBV is implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) and neurological issues that are thought to be related like Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, which are hugely debilitating and don't have any treatment other than support and coping strategies. (And symptoms largely overlap with Long Covid, which has similar issues.) Better understanding of what the virus does gives hope that understanding of how in some people it triggers neurological issues is close. And then maybe some effective treatment within my lifetime would be awesome.
POTS is crazy. My partner's daughter developed it and it's gotten bad. She just straight up passes out and falls over randomly...and it was a massive ordeal over months to get a doctor to take it seriously and diagnose it. Like...you need to go to a Mayo/Barnes/Johns Hopkins tier hospital. Otherwise doctors just go "well that's weird...anyway, good luck with that." Still not much progress on treating it, since the first round of medication was a bust, but at least step one's out of the way.
Nature just published a paper (no Libgen release yet) associating increased active EBV load with all kinds of immune system disorders, from Parkinson's disease to RA to irritable bowel disease to Type I diabetes, in addition to the previously demonstrated associations with lupus and MS. EBV has also been shown to trigger autoimmunity to alpha-synuclein, which is critical to neurotransmitter regulation throughout the nervous system, and a probable cause of Parkinson's and other alpha-synuclein associated diseases.
There's progress (preprint from the DecodeME study) towards understanding the mechanisms of ME/CFS and creating a sensitive/specific test. At this point, there's no question it's a distinct physiological disease with autoimmune components, but the wide range of causative infections and disrupted systems means there isn't likely to be a single specific treatment.
There are many people with the Epstein patronym, and I feel badly for them - it's kind of like having "Bundy" as a surname.
They can't all score four winning touchdowns for Polk High.
It's really not a big deal. It's a very common Jewish last name, I know at least 2 unrelated people personally with that name. Not quite "Smith", but halfway there.
Ironically Bundy is used as a shortening of Bundaberg (Rum) here in Aus.
Leads to some.. interesting convos with americans sometimes.
Perhaps the most notable example of unfortunate Epstein's is the New York City politician Harvey Epstein, who I (and the rest of the nation) learned about thanks to this SNL skit.