Multiple sclerosis and Epstein-Barr virus: a growing association.

The etiology of multiple sclerosis is an elusive field due to the lack of the usual cause-effect relationship model to explain a disease. In fact, with all the current evidence we start thinking in multiple sclerosis as a multi-factorial disease, where an infective agent on a genetically permissive host can lead to inflammation, demyelination and ultimately to neurological damage with dire consequences for the patients. This review will focus on the role of viruses in multiple sclerosis etiology and give some insight regarding this complicated issue.