Evidence suggests that retroviruses play a role in the pathogenesis of Sjögren's syndrome, a syndrome known to overlap with ME/CFS

Arthritis Res Ther. 2011 Apr 13;13(2):212. [Epub ahead of print]
Is Sjögren's syndrome a retroviral disease?

Sipsas NV, Gamaletsou MN, Moutsopoulos HM.:

Pathophysiology Department, Laikon General Hospital and Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Mikras Asias 75, Athens - 11527, Greece.
nsipsas@med.uoa.gr.

Abstract
ABSTRACT:
Circumstantial evidence suggests that retroviruses play a role in the pathogenesis of Sjögren's syndrome. Such evidence, derived from studies of patients with Sjögren's syndrome, includes the following: the presence of serum antibodies cross-reactive with retroviral Gag proteins; the occurrence of reverse transcriptase activity in salivary glands; the detection of retroviral antigens, retrovirus-like particles, or novel retroviral sequences in salivary glands; the occurrence of Sjögren's syndrome-like illnesses in patients having confirmed systematic infections with retroviruses such as human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and human T lymphotropic virus type 1; and the beneficial effect of anti-retroviral treatment on the occurrence of HIV-1-associated sicca syndrome.
Additional evidence is provided by animal models.

PMID: 21489323 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] PMCID: PMC3132012 [Available on 2011/10/13]