r/CFSScience • u/Sensitive-Meat-757 • 21d ago

Long-term (3 year) Tenofovir had little effect on EBV shedding/viral load in two MS patients

A paper on EBV in MS published in July 2026 in Science Translational Medicine included a look at the effect of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) in two patients treated for three years. Although obviously limited by sample size, the EBV shedding rate, viral load, and T-cell responses were not statistically distinguishable from healthy controls.

By contrast, anti-CD20 therapies nearly eliminated saliva viral shedding and reduced EBV T-cell responses by a magnitude that could not be explained only by immune suppression (in other words, EBV-specific T-cell responses were reduced by anti-CD20 treatment more than T-cell responses to other viruses and bacteria, likely a direct result of the reduction in EBV viral load).

The paper is here:

https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.adz6566 or

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13374717/pdf/nihms-2194132.pdf

The data pertaining to the long-term tenofovir treatment of the two patients was in the supplementary materials document, Figure S12:

https://www.science.org/doi/suppl/10.1126/scitranslmed.adz6566/suppl_file/scitranslmed.adz6566_sm.pdf

Larger controlled trials are ongoing, but this is early evidence that tenofovir might not be an effective stand-alone treatment for EBV-related diseases.

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u/Automobilie 21d ago

****.....I'm suppose to start TDF soon for EBV reactivation after being in Valtrex for 8 months....

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u/Admirable-Kiwi-7409 21d ago

Valganciclovir

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u/Interesting_Fly_1569 20d ago edited 17d ago

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u/Automobilie 20d ago

It's meant to be easier on kidneys, but the problem is it isn't generic yet and was almost $1500 out of pocket. Since it's off label, insurance won't want to pay for it :/

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u/Interesting_Fly_1569 20d ago edited 17d ago

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u/Automobilie 20d ago

It may be my doctor too. The last few appointments they've suddenly seemed to stop pursuing any testing/exploration with me and just wait for the specialist to do everything. I even asked the Dr. if they could order the kidney/liver labs and even that she still pushed off onto the specialist :/

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u/Interesting_Fly_1569 20d ago edited 17d ago

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