Viral reactivation linked to heart disease.

• Position: Cardiovascular System

The link that scientists have been looking for to confirm that reactivation of a latent herpes virus is a cause of some heart problems may have been provided by a study at Ohio State University, Columbus.

Looking at blood samples from heart patients, researchers found that those who had suffered a heart attack were the most likely to have inflammatory proteins circulating in their blood compared to patients with less acute symptoms--and having more of one of these proteins in the blood was linked to the presence of antibodies that signal a latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation.

To date, these relationships have been hard to find because scientists have been unable to detect evidence of a virus in diseased areas of the cardiovascular system. In this study, however, the researchers instead looked for antibodies against a protein that can be produced even when only partial or incomplete reactivation of EBV occurs--and when this antibody was detected, it was associated with immune system malfunctions connected to inflammation, a known risk factor for heart disease.

Identifying a solid link between a reactivated virus and heart disease is important because of the prevalence of EBV, a human herpes virus that causes infectious...