Alzheimer's disease could be caused by the herpes virus

"We have observed an increase in human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) in subjects with Alzheimer's disease compared to controls." This quote, extracted from a new study published in the journal Neuron, goes in the direction of a controversial theory, arguing that Alzheimer's disease could be triggered by one or more viruses affecting the brain.

"We have built multi-scale networks of the virome badociated with Alzheimer's disease, integrating genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and histopathological data into four regions of the brain from post-mortem human tissues", explain the researchers . In other words, the team badyzed nearly 1,000 post-mortem brains of people with and without Alzheimer's disease.

"A rather old idea"

Result: two different strains of herpes virus were present in 40 to 50% of tissues, herpes 6A and herpes 7 (almost everyone carries herpes, only causing eruptions in young children, Ed). In addition, brains with Alzheimer's disease contained twice as many of these strains as brains free of neurological disease. These findings were replicated in two other independent and geographically dispersed cohorts.

"The theory that viruses or other pathogens may play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease is a fairly old idea," says Dr. Benjamin Readhead, an badociate professor at the University of Toronto. Arizona State University (United States). Because viruses have been found in both "Alzheimer's" and "non-Alzheimer's" tissues, scientists can not simply say that infection with these viruses causes Alzheimer's disease, and additional testing is essential .

Outstanding Issues

But "one of the real issues is to try to determine how much of what we see could be a causal factor for the disease," says Benjamin Readhea. Alzheimer's and related dementias affect about one million patients in France. 100,000 to 150,000 new cases are reported each year

Alzheimer's disease has recently been put on the spotlight, with Health Minister Agnès Buzyn announcing the controversial removal of some drugs by social security. "I confirm the delisting of anti-Alzheimer drugs, and this is absolutely not for budgetary reasons, because these drugs have been shown by the HAS to be harmful and causing a lot of side effects, with fractures and falls, we de-refund so that people do not use them anymore, "she explained, Wednesday, May 30, on the set of the" 19/20 "of France 3.