Alzheimer's researchers now examine viruses

They itch and you do not look good with them. The so-called cold sore on the lip is annoying, but not dangerous. But recent studies show that the virus behind them can also play a major role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. And next to him come several other pathogens in question. "We were surprised ourselves, but their brains made it clear that there were viruses at work." You may feel the concern in the audience when Joel Dudley reported the results of his study at Maryland's "Alzheimers Disease Research Summit," for the American geneticist evaluated with other researchers, genetic sequences of brains of 600 deaths – and found in Alzheimer patient tissue samples clearly and to a greater than average extent the genetic traces of viral life.

Such as Herpesvirus HHV -6, which provides babies for three days fever. And also herpes simplex virus that turns lips into crisp and pungent landscapes. "The brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease were sometimes twice as full as those of healthy witnesses," says Dudley.

1.6 million Germans suffer from dementia

Here are the latest facts and figures about Alzheimer's and dementia in Germany: prevalence

In Germany, nearly 1.6 million people are suffering from dementia. About 300,000 new cases occur each year.

Dementia More than two-thirds of dementia is the result of Alzheimer's disease. The remaining cases are mainly due to vascular conditions, so they are due to circulatory disorders in the brain.

Concerned About 70 percent of dementia in old age is attributable to women. The main reason is that they are older than men

Duration of illness The average duration of Alzheimer's disease – calculated from the time of diagnosis – is seven years .

Therapy To date There is no causal therapy for Alzheimer's. Medications such as anti-dementia drugs and anti-depressants can best help in the early and middle stages of the disease to preserve memory for as long as possible and to reduce concomitant symptoms.

The viral load was all the greater as dementia progressed. This is also a clear indication that the microorganism and the disease are linked. "Although I do not believe that viruses trigger Alzheimer's dementia," says Dudley. "But they certainly play a key role in the evolution of the disease."

It was not so long ago that people ridiculed germs and creeping dementia. However, this topic has long since lost its status as an outsider.

About a year ago, 31 internationally renowned Alzheimer's experts published a statement in which they complained that the development of therapies was too focused on amyloid plaques and Tau proteins would be concentrated in the brain. Although these deposits are typical of Alzheimer's disease, it should also be determined what factors would promote their development. "And this includes undeniable infections," according to the panel of experts, which also includes Judith Miklossy, who runs the International Alzheimer Research Center in Martigny-Croix, Switzerland.

In addition to herpes viruses, chlamydia and spirochetes – both of which belong to the bacteria – seem to promote the development of Alzheimer's disease. They are particularly successful in overcoming the blood-brain barrier, which becomes more and more permeable with age. In the brain tissue, the germs are then, as researchers at Harvard American University in the laboratory have shown, locked in a sticky protein mbad. On the one hand, the elimination of infection, on the other hand, but also produces aggregates of proteins and bacteria, just the amyloid plaques. In fact, the brain should be able to dissolve them again, but many people do not have the physiological prerequisites. And then the plates load like toxic concrete blocks on brain neurons and Alzheimer's disease takes its fatal course.

But that does not mean that anyone who has ever had cold sores is afraid of a life of insanity. needs. "We now know that people with the apoE2 gene may well dissolve the plaques in their brains and that they have a low risk of Alzheimer's," says Rudolph Tanzi, a Harvard researcher. And some of the suspected Alzheimer's germs can also be deactivated preventively, even with relatively simple means. Thus, Judith Miklossy emphasizes that helical spirochetes particularly like to stay in poorly maintained mouths. "With careful oral and dental hygiene," says the researcher, "you are also contributing to the prevention of Alzheimer's disease."