Infection and genotype relationship in multiple sclerosis: Do Chlamydophila pneumoniae and human herpes virus-6 infections together with APO E alleles have a role in the etiopathogenesis of multiple sclerosis?

Despite numerous studies in many laboratories over several years, the etiology of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is still unknown. It was suggested that some infectious agents play a role in the etiology of MS. This study included 39 patients with MS, 10 patients with other neurological disorders (OND) and a control group of 42 healthy people. There was no significant difference between MS, OND and HC groups for Chlamydophila pneumoniae based on having past infection positivity (p > 0.05). Chronic C. pneumonia infection was detected in 8 cases with MS and 3 cases in the healthy control group, and no chronic chlamydia infection was detected in patients with OND. No significant difference was found among the three groups. Antibody titres at 1/50 and higher IgG were detected in 34(87.2%), 8(80%) and 30(71.4%) of the patients with MS, OND and the healthy control group, respectively. There was no statistically significiant difference among these groups. No C. pneumoniae and HHV-6 DNA was detected in CSF samples from the patients with MS and OND. There was no significant difference for the distribution of all APO E alleles for MS and healthy control groups. Moreover, no significant difference was found in the distribution of all APO E alleles for patients who had antibody titres for past infection with C. pneumonia and HHV-6 between MS and control group. In conclusion, our data suggested that there was no contribution from the association of the C. pneumoniea and HHV-6 infections to the etiopathogenesis of the MS and our results are in concurrance with two important meta-analysis studies reported in 2006, but large scale, prospective new trials are needed to clarify this subject as proposed in meta-analysis considirations