Cytomegalovirus Infection May Trigger Adult-Onset Still's Disease Onset or Relapses

In conclusion, our results showed that CMV infection may play a role in the initiation or amplification of inflammatory responses in AOSD. Introduction Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is a rare but clinically well-known systemic inflammatory disease. It is typically characterized by a high spiking fever, evanescent skin rash, arthralgia, sore throat and neutrophilia (1–3). Even though the etiology of AOSD remains unknown, there is evidence that it's triggered by environmental factors with genetic predisposition (4). It has long been suspected that viral infections might contribute to the onset and relapse of AOSD, although definitive evidence has not been presented. The link between an infectious agent and the development of AOSD has long been discussed (5), and in 1988 research reported that evidence of viral infections was acquired in three of five patients with AOSD, including echovirus 7 and rubella virus (6). Since then, several researchers have reported the occurrence of AOSD after viral infections, including Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), human herpesvirus 6, influenza virus, parainfluenza viruses, or coxsackie virus (7–9). In addition, AOSD patients often present with high fever, sore throat and rash, just before the initiation of the disease or the relapse. These manifestations were similar to viral infections with infectious danger signal to trigger inflammatory response (10). Studies during the past deca...
Source: Frontiers in Immunology - Category: Allergy & Immunology Source Type: research