Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies to Differentiate MS From Other Neuroinflammatory Diseases - Part 2

In the second part of this series, Dr. Justin Abbatemarco and Dr. Paulus Rommer discuss how to apply these study results into clinical practice.

Show citation:

Vietzen H, Kühner LM, Berger SM, et al. Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies to Differentiate Multiple Sclerosis From Other Neuroinflammatory Diseases. JAMA Neurol. Published online March 9, 2026. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2026.0240

Show transcript:

Dr. Justin Abbatemarco:

Hello and welcome back. This is Justin Abbatemarco, and we're finishing up our interview with Paulus Rommer on his article on JAMA Neurology, Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies that differentiate multiple sclerosis from other Neuroinflammatory Diseases. Paulus, can we talk about how we would apply your results into clinical practice right now?

Dr. Paulus Rommer:

The persistent high apnea antibody responses are a hallmark of multiple sclerosis. And in our micro center study, we found that the singular measurement is not sufficient to differentiate multiple sclerosis from other related disorders like MOGAD or NMOSD, but it's the repeated high levels over time. We see them in about 95% of our MS patients, but really rarely in MOGAD or NMOSD. So this persistent high levels is a good factor, with a high accuracy, to really diagnose multiple sclerosis and to differentiate them from MOGOD or NMOSD.

Dr. Justin Abbatemarco:

I think these are really helpful and I think a little more evolution in how we interpret these on individual patient level, like we talked about in the podcast, but more to come. Paulus, thank you again for all your work on this topic for coming on and we're excited to have you back in the future.

Dr. Paulus Rommer:

Thank you.