First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

We read with interest the recent paper by Hsieh and colleagues [1] asserting that cytomegalovirus (CMV) induces systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in genetically susceptible individuals. This assertion is based on the idea that SLE-associated autoantibodies that had been induced by a certain fragment of CMV were found in rodents. However, our previous studies have reported that autoantibodies detected in SLE and viral infection are different, especially with regard to the anti-microtubule organizing center with microtubule (anti-MTOC-MT) [2-4]. We conducted a retrospective study comparing autoantibodies in three groups: anti-CMV IgM-positive SLE patients (SLE-CMV group); anti-CMV IgM-positive patients without SLE (CMV group); and anti-CMV IgM-negative SLE patients (SLE group). This study was approved by the institutional review board of Hanyang University Medical Center.