Academic stress - Influence on Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus reactivation, cortisol, and prolactin

This study evaluated the effects of a common stressful event, academic exam ination, on (1) reactivation of latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and cytomeg alovirus (CMV) and (2) levels of cortisol and prolactin in serum. Blood sam ples were drawn from 2 groups of female students at the beginning of the se mester (baseline) and during final examination periods (stress samples) of summer and fall-winter semesters. During summer, fall-winter, and overall, examination stress resulted in significantly increased levels of cortisol a t P = .037, .016 and .004, respectively, but not prolactin (P = .32, .09 an d .1, respectively). Examination stress significantly increased EBV viral c apsid antigen (VCA) IgG levels from baseline levels (P = .0028) in the summ er group, but not in the fall-winter (64% vs 15%) was significant at P = .0 05. Furthermore, after the examination, the percent increase of EBV VCA IgG in the summer (56%) was significantly different (P = .002) from the percen t increase (-2%) in the fall-winter. On the other hand, examination stress did not affect the frequency of CMV reactivation or CMV IgG levels in eithe r group. These data suggest that academic stress can reactivate some of the latent herpesviruses to various degrees at different seasons, and that in vivo reactivation of specific latent viral genes might involve multiple neu roendocrine interactions.