Common virus may lie behind all lupus cases, study suggests

A common childhood virus appears to be the trigger for the autoimmune disease lupus, according to groundbreaking research.

- Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

The study suggests that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which for most people is harmless, can cause immune cells to “go rogue” and mistakenly attack the body’s own tissues.

The team behind the work said the discovery could revolutionise treatments. “We think it applies to 100% of lupus cases,” said the study’s senior author, Prof William Robinson, a professor of immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University. “I think it really sets the stage for a new generation of therapies that could fundamentally treat and thereby provide benefit to lupus patients.”