Antiviral therapy.

Abstract

Recently conventional viruses such as measles and rubella and unconventional infectious agents have been implicated as the cause of chronic, debilitating neurologic ailments’. This suggests that other nervous system diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are likely to be due to a virus. In the case of ALS it has been thought that polio virus would be a logical etiologic candidate since both poliomyelitis and ALS share striking clinical similarities[2]. In both disorders the brunt of the pathologic process is primarily borne by the motor neuron. Further, some patients with poliomyelitis go on to develop weakness and wasting many years after their initial illness[3]. These reports have prompted epidemiologists to study the incidence of ALS in patients with a history of poliomyelitis. Poskanzer and his colleagues have reported an association between the two diseases[4]. Immunologic support for a relationship between ALS and polio rests on the finding that lymphocytes from ALS patients may be sensitized to polio antigen[5]. However, serum and CSF antibodies to polio are not disproportionately elevated in persons with ALS[6]. Although a number of attempts have been made to isolate a virus, including polio from ALS tissues, this has not been successful nor have attempts to transmit ALS to an animal host[7].KeywordsMultiple SclerosisAmyotrophic Lateral SclerosisThymidine KinaseAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis PatientViral EtiologyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.