Covid, viruses and MS

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
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Hi guys,

Hope this post finds everyone as well as they can be.

So I’m currently awaiting a neurology appt after many years of unexplained symptoms and a bout of optic neuritis before Christmas which was remarkably unpleasant.

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of MS diagnosis after Covid - while my symptoms predate the pandemic - I’m now on my third bout of Covid :grimacing: despite being fully vaccinated, wearing a mask, hand sanitising etc! And it’s making me think that there’s some correlation with autoimmune problems and Covid - before Covid I also had shingles.

There doesn’t appear to be a lot of research on MS post Covid so I’m just asking out of curiousity if anyone has their own experience they’d be willing to share of being diagnosed post ANY virus, Covid or otherwise? I know of someone else who is currently undergoing tests for MS vs transverse myelitis as they’ve had some unpleasant neuro symptoms post Covid infection so it definetly seems like there’s a link!

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Covid 19 is known to cause neuroinflammation in some people. The vaccines also can cause neuroinflammation. I think they still don’t know whether the virus can replicate in the CNS. But MS is driven by neuroinflammation, so there may be some connection.

This paper may be of interest:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359610121000186#bib0025

The article states that people with dementia, strokes, Parkinsons and ALS seem to have worse outcomes if they get Covid, but MS isn’t mentioned.

However, one thing in paper which caught my attention was the following:

Interestingly, coronaviruses are associated with central nervous system (CNS) diseases such as disseminated encephalomyelitis/encephalomyelitis), multiple sclerosis [5], febrile seizures, and encephalitis epilepsy. Studies have shown that human coronavirus OC43 can access the CNS through axonal transport and viral migration through neurons in the brain and others have reported that SARS-CoV may enter the CNS through both blood circulation (blood-brain barrier, BBB) and olfactory bulb.

The reference [5] is particularly interesting, in that it appears that the OC43 cold virus can be a persistent infection in the brain, which may be connected with MS in some. They suggest that genetic factors of the individual as well as genetics of viruses could determine the consequence of a persistent presence of HCoV RNA in human CNS and explain the development of neurological disease in some individuals. Maybe Covid19 can also become persistent in human CNS.

I think that the intense level of research into Covid 19 is going to shed new light onto many areas of disease such as autoimmunity processes including MS.

I’m not a big fan of the following channel, but I did find this one really interesting as it explains very nicely a very recent paper " A Possible Role for Anti-idiotype Antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Vaccination (William J. Murphy, Ph.D., and Dan L. Longo, M.D.), and how autoimmunity might be happening and driving long covid.

So no nice clear answers, but plenty to pique interest in those who find these things intriguing.

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@Glitterandglue your post really interests me. I to have had covid and awaiting a neurology appointment. I had on off symptoms before covid but i dismissed them all, then covid hit and symtoms progressed really badly. That was 8 months ago and im still not very well. My gp diagnosed long covid and dismissed all neurogical symtoms, said i was depressed along with some very hurtful awful things. My symptoms may or may not be ms or some form condition but the waiting time for the long covid clinic and lack of help on the nhs was terrible for me. I went private to see a gp who was deeply concerned and finally i have help soon or just answers from a neurologist. I have a lot of symptoms and ive also thought Transvere Myelitis.
Hopfully you can get peace of mind and help very soon. I know what your going through.

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Hi Bet!

Hope you’re well. I apologise I didn’t reply - I haven’t been on here for a while.
Did you manage to get some answers?
L x