Alzheimer’s disease may be triggered by herpes virus

[Swordsmyth]

Alzheimer’s disease may be triggered by the herpes virus, a new study suggests, leading to hopes that antiviral medication could help prevent dementia.
Around 850,000 people are living with dementia in Britain, and the majority of people have Alzheimer’s which occurs when sticky plaques of amyloid build up in the brain, killing brain cells.
But new research has found that the brains of people who have died of Alzhiemer’s have almost double the level of HHV-6A and HHV-7 herpes virus as non-diseased brains, suggesting it is playing a role in the condition.
Researchers in the US believe that the disease may trigger an immune ‘cascade’ which encourages the growth of amyloid plaques.
It raises hopes that cases could be prevented through antiviral drugs.

How herpes in the brain could trigger Alzheimer's

The team did not set out to study the impact of herpes, but were looking for anything which might be different in six key brain regions in people with Alzheimer’s compared to those who were dementia free.
They began by sequencing DNA from the dead patients to find out information about inherited genes, followed by their RNA to find out how those genes were expressed.
“We didn't go looking for viruses, but viruses sort of screamed out at us,” said lead author assistant research professor Ben Readhead of Arizona State University.
“We saw a key virus, HHV 6A, regulating the expression of quite a few Alzheimer’s risk genes and genes known to regulate the processing of amyloid, a key ingredient in Alzheimer’s neuropathology."
The study authors say the findings suggests that Alzheimer’s could be ‘collateral damage’ caused by the brain's response to the virus.
Both HHV 6A, and 7 are common herpesviruses and most people are exposed to them early in life. It is different from the Herpes-simplex virus which causes cold sores and genital herpes.
The level of the virus in the brain also correlated with clinical dementia scores before death. Those with more viral DNA performed worse in tests.
“I don't think we can answer whether herpesviruses are a primary cause of Alzheimer's disease,” said study senior author, Dr Joel Dudley, Director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“"But what's clear is that they're perturbing and participating in networks that directly underlie Alzheimer's.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/alzheimer...153525970.html

[Zippyjuan]

Cause? Or symptom? Or sympathetic infection taking advantage of weakened body defenses? Nearly 100% of humans have those viruses in their bodies. In some with weak immune systems, they can get stronger in the body.

From the OP:

“I don't think we can answer whether herpes viruses are a primary cause of Alzheimer's disease,” said study senior author, Dr Joel Dudley, Director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Both HHV 6A, and 7 are common herpesviruses and most people are exposed to them early in life.

https://hhv-6foundation.org/what-is-hhv-6

Human Herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is a set of two closely related herpes viruses known as HHV-6A and HHV-6B. HHV-6B infects nearly 100% of human beings, typically before the age of three and often results in fever, diarrhea, sometimes with a rash known as roseola. Although rare, this initial infection HHV-6B infection can also cause febrile seizures, encephalitis or intractable seizures.

Like the other herpesviruses—Epstein Barr virus, chicken pox, herpes simplex—HHV-6 establishes life-long latency and can become reactivated later in life. This reactivation has been associated with many clinical manifestations that can be seen in the “Associated Conditions” section of this site. Reactivation can occur in the brain, lungs, heart, kidney and gastrointestinal tract, especially in patients with immune deficiencies and transplant patients.