Half of the Alzheimer's disease due to herpes viruses?

Does herpes lead to Alzheimer's disease?

The researchers discovered a link between herpes viruses and Alzheimer's disease. Apparently, the herpes virus can be badociated with at least half of the cases of Alzheimer's. If people are infected with the herpes simplex virus (HSV), this can clearly increase the risk of dementia.

Researchers at the University of Manchester and Oxford University have found in their current research that herpes infection can increase the risk of dementia. The doctors published the results of their study in the English journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

What types of herpes exist?

There are two types of herpes simplex virus. HSV1, also known as oral herpes, causes cold sores and blisters around the mouth and face. HSV2 is usually responsible for bad herpes. The results of the study suggest that the risk of developing dementia in the elderly is much greater if those affected are infected with HSV. Antiviral treatment could lead to a drastic reduction in HSV-1 cases, which would lead to dementia, according to the study's author, Professor Ruth Itzhaki of the University of Manchester.

The evaluated data come from Taiwan

The study data comes from Taiwan, with 99.9% of the population recorded in the National Health Insurance Research Database. In 2017 and 2018, three studies in total were published using data from Taiwan to study the development of senile dementia. In addition, the data have also been taken into account for the treatment of patients with obvious signs of infection with HSV or varicella zoster virus (VZV). It should be emphasized that the results of these studies concerned only serious infections with HSV1 or VZV, explain the authors of the study.

The APOE-? 4 plays an important role

Ideally, doctors would like to look at dementia rates in people with mild HSV1 infection, including cold sores (cold sores) or mild bad herpes, but these disorders are less well documented. Herpes blisters were more common in people with APOE-? 4, a variant of the gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The scientists therefore suggest that in humans carrying the APOE-4 gene, reactivation in HSV1-infected brain cells is more common or more damaging, leading to damage leading to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Viral DNA is very specific in post-mortem brain tissue plaques of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The main proteins of what are called plaques and tangles also accumulate in cultures of HSV1 infected cells and antiviral drugs can prevent this.

Additional research is needed

The results of the study suggest that people with herpes virus are more likely to develop dementia, but they do not show a cause-and-effect relationship between herpes and dementia, according to experts from the Alzheimer Society. Herpes remains a hot topic in dementia research because brain infection is more common in people with Alzheimer's disease than healthy brains. Further research is now needed to determine whether antiviral drugs can reduce the risk of dementia. (As)