Alzheimer’s disease could be caused by herpes virus, warn experts

Link to an article in the Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12188092/Alzheimers-disease-could-be-caused-by-herpes-virus-warn-experts.html

Regular readers of the blog will know that the herpes virus HSV-1 has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease by several research studies. There are a number of posts that discuss this. Please enter 'herpes' in the search box (top left) to find these posts.

Interestingly, google shows a link to several other major diseases such as MS and type 2 diabetes. 

A study on the association between infectious burden and Alzheimer's disease.

The following link will take you to a summary of this study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24910016

The conclusion of the study is that 'IB* consisting of CMV, HSV-1, B. burgdorferi, C. pneumoniae and H. pylori is associated with AD. This study supports the role of infection/inflammation in the etiopathogenesis of AD.'

*IB: 'Infectious Burden' (the burden of previous infections by the viruses and bacteria mentioned)

This particularly interests me because my wife's dementia followed a long period, maybe 15 years, when she more or less constantly suffered from debilitating infections (I know that she tested positive for, amongst many viruses, CMV and HIV-1 and B. burgdorferi  -  which she has never been tested for  -  causes Lyme Disease which may be relevant in S's case see this).  I suspect others will be interested for similar reasons. 

I've previously seen it suggested that repeated infections might lay the groundwork, so to speak, for Alzheimer's but, for us, this conclusion takes things to a new level and might put a number of jigsaw pieces together  -  for what that's worth at this stage.

HSV-1 and Alzheimer's disease: more than a hypothesis.

A recent article with this title (also discovered on Alzforum) is summarised here.

Revisiting the link between the Herpes Simplex virus (HSV-1) and Alzheimer's Disease

Regular readers will know that I am very interested in this link.  New readers can find several past posts about the link by putting HSV-1 or herpes into the search box (top left).

I get the weekly newsletter from the excellent Alzforum Network.  For some reason, I searched their database today and found that Professor Ruth Itzhaki, who has done so much to research and publicise the link has very recently published a paper which updates the information that I posted here.

A summary of the new paper can be found here.

There are also some other papers that look interesting.

I never claim to understand all these papers but I think it's still possible to get the gist of them. If you've not come across the discovery of this link you may well be surprised that it is not better known.