title: Torque teno mini virus infection and multiple sclerosis.
abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of young adults which is characterized by autoimmune demyelination of the central nervous system. Interaction of genetics and environmental factors are required to cause MS. Among the proposed environmental factors for MS, viral infections are thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Torque teno mini virus (TTMV), which has recently been shown to infect humans, is a member of circoviridae, and has a circular DNA with 2860 nucleotides. Since there are a few data about the pathogenicity of this virus, this study sought to investigate the presence of TTMV in sera from MS patients and healthy individuals. We studied 149 serum samples from MS patients and 150 sera of healthy individuals. Serum DNA was extracted using phenol-chloroform and was subjected to nested polymerase chain reaction. TTMV-DNA was detected in 24 (16%) sera of the healthy blood donors and in 21 (14.1%) samples of the MS patients, where the difference did not reach significance (p > .05). The result of this study could not establish an association between TTMV infection and MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Komijani
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bouzari
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Etemadifar
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zarkesh-Esfahani
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shaykh-Baygloo
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghazimorad
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mostajeran
authors.forename: Ameneh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nasr-Azadani
authors.forename: Amir-Hadi
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Maghzi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004266:DNA Virus Infections / Q000209:etiology*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000821:virology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D022783:Torque teno virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral