---
title: Epstein-Barr Virus Reactivation Found to Drive Multiple Sclerosis Relapses
description: A Nature Medicine study finds Epstein-Barr virus reactivating in immune cells drives MS relapses and shows up in the blood up to three months ahead.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-09-16T15:14:57.055Z
canonical: https://richhealthmagazine.com/article/epstein-barr-virus-reactivation-found-to-drive-multiple-sclerosis-relapses
categories: Longevity & Science
content_type: News
region: Global
publication: Rich Health Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

Researchers have identified, for the first time, why relapses strike people with multiple sclerosis: a common virus that most people carry for life reactivates inside immune cells and primes them to attack, and it starts doing so up to three months before symptoms return. The finding, published on 16 September 2026 in Nature Medicine, points toward a blood test that could warn patients months ahead of a flare-up and toward treatments aimed at the virus itself rather than the whole immune system.

The virus is Epstein-Barr virus, or EBV, which infects most adults, causes mono, and then stays dormant in the body for life. The team, led by Tanuja Chitnis, MD, director of the Translational Neuroimmunology Research Center, followed blood samples over time from 114 people with relapsing-remitting MS and 21 healthy control participants in the CLIMB study at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, bulk transcriptomics, flow cytometry, and targeted viral testing, they tracked what changed in immune cells in the weeks before a relapse.

## Immune Cells Shift Up to Three Months Before Symptoms Return

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