Herpes Linked to Alzheimer's

[alice]

Using human brain tissue in lab dishes, researchers show herpes link to Alzheimer’s
May 6, 2020

Small 3D version of the human brain develops key features of Alzheimer’s disease when it is infected with a virus that causes cold sores, scientists reported on Wednesday, adding to the evidence that this most common form of dementia can be caused by a common microbe.
The new research, published in Science Advances, is the first to directly show in a lab model (rather than through circumstantial evidence from human studies) that the herpes simplex virus HSV-1 might cause Alzheimer’s: Human brain-like tissue infected with the virus became riddled with amyloid plaque-like formations — the hallmark of Alzheimer’s. It also developed neuroinflammation and became less effective at conducting electrical signals, all of which happen in Alzheimer’s disease.
“This is a very important paper,” said Dev Devanand, chief of geriatric psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, who was not involved in the study and is leading a clinical trial to see whether antiviral drugs can treat mild Alzheimer’s. The HSV-1 findings “support the role of viruses in Alzheimer’s disease.”


Although a few researchers have long pursued a “microbial theory” of Alzheimer’s, their work has been a backwater, with the scientists struggling to get grants and published. Instead, most scientists focused on the amyloid plaques, which accumulate between brain neurons, as the likely cause, along with tau tangles that spread inside the neurons. That has started to change, with the National Institutes of Health last year inviting scientists to apply for funding to study the role of pathogens in Alzheimer’s.