from Ann B. Hill writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention:
In recent years it has been suggested that CMV may be involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of conditions in which there may not be clear evidence of viral replication. These "non-traditional" disease associations include glioblastoma and various other cancers, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and immunosenescence, amongst others. The pathologies fall into two broad groups: tumors, and inflammatory diseases of aging. In the case of tumors, some groups have used ultrasensitive detection techniques and report finding CMV in the majority of tumor cells. In the case of inflammatory diseases of aging, the evidence mostly comes from epidemiological studies that have associated CMV serology or CMV-driven alterations in T cell populations with various outcomes. While CMV's biology provides ready explanations for these putative disease associations, the actual evidence for its being involved remains controversial. This review will review the evidence for several putative disease associations.
Further reading: Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention