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.

Another herpes virus (CMV) has been found in the brains of 93% of people with Vascular Dementia

These herpes viruses cause a wide range of problems.

The article mentioned in this link dates from 2002  -  2002, for God's sake.  Any progress since?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996101904656

You may wonder why this fact is not more widely known and why there has not been much research into the relationship between CMV and VD.

There is great hostility to this kind of research.  This may be because research tends to be funded by 'big pharma'.  Why would they be interested in a treatment that involved a cheap and widely available anti-viral drug?

Rashes and viruses

My wife's dementia was preceded by many years of ill-health involving viral infections. These often produced ME-like symptoms that were a problem for months at a time. I've discussed these before:

http://adventureswithdementia.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=viruses

It's always seemed to me possible, if not likely, that these infections have had something to do with the development of the dementia.

For as long as I've known her she has 'broken out' in rashes very frequently, usually when she is ill. They are the kind of rashes, mostly on her back or chest, that often come as quickly as they go.

I've mentioned previously that since she has had the dementia, the viral illnesses have disappeared (though until she started taking Acyclovir, an anti-viral medication, she was having regular herpes outbreaks). But the rashes I'm talking about have continued and often coincide with periods when her dementia symptoms worsen.

I'm going to try and discover whether other people with dementia have similar rashes. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else with dementia has experienced similar rashes.

New readers catch-up 2: Causes/contributory factors

In my effort to try and understand the disease, I've looked so far at three possible causes/contributory factors. Unlike some of the stuff that you can find online, these have all been discussed and researched by perfectly reputable scientists, and at least two of the three were taken seriously by the memory clinic and its very highly respected head.

Just click on the links which take you to various posts on this blog:

1) Lyme disease

2) Tamoxifen  and here  mice experiments

3) Herpes and here

(There's more on Herpes and the best way to find it all is to put the word into the search box (top left) and click 'enter')

Possible causes/contributory factors 1

Prior to S's condition really becoming apparent, there was a decade or more when she regularly had debilitating viral infections which often kept her off work - a couple of times for long periods. During these times she had various tests when different dodgy viruses were found in her blood tests. The symptoms were sore throats, earaches, constant fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, weight gain and dizziness.

One thing she has never been tested for is Lyme disease. This is a contentious topic, it seems, but it is clear that Lyme disease - which is spread by a tick bite - can induce these kind of symptoms, sometimes many years after the initial tick bite. And the end stage of serious infection is a condition involving dementia.

At the age of 18, S spent a year doing VSO in Ethiopia where Lyme disease is endemic. During her time there she was ill with the same kind of symptoms as those mentioned above and was thought to have altitude sickness.

In the late 1980's, S spent 3 weeks in the Philipines, another area where the ticks that can cause Lyme disease are found.

We have mentioned all this to the Professor at various points during the last few years. He did not seem particularly convinced by the Lyme disease possibility but was for a long time of the view that S's problems could be the result of, or could have been exacerbated by, viral-type infection (actually, I believe that Lyme disease is caused by bacteria though the symptoms are similar to viral diseases). He actually referred us to a colleague who was supposedly investigating any possible link though this did not really get us anywhere, maybe because the guy - who seemed to have a penchant for diagnosing difficult conditions - was actually an expert in fungi, rather than viruses. He did blood tests which showed the presence of both Herpes viruses, of which more later.

So we never really got anywhere with this line of enquiry, but there remain unanswered questions about the illnesses that S kept getting, what caused them, and what the long-term effects might have been.

Interestingly, although still gets very tired at times, virtually all the other 'viral' symptoms have long since disappeared. She is seldom 'ill' now, apart from having a dodgy brain!