"Even More Evidence For The Link Between Alzheimer’s And Herpes" - Ed Yong
Several new studies have rejuvenated a long-dismissed idea that links the common brain disease to the viral infections. In the past three decades, more than 100 papers have described correlations between the presence of HSV–1 and the risk of Alzheimer’s. Most recently, Ben Readhead, MBBS, biomedical informatics research scientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and his colleagues showed that two herpes viruses, HHV-6A and HHV-7, were more common in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients than those of healthy people. The team confirmed this in three separate groups of patients. And they found that the more abundant the viruses, the worse the patient’s symptoms. “Some of these viruses are interacting with genes that are in the middle of known Alzheimer’s biology,” he said. Perhaps a better understanding of what amyloid beta actually does, and how it interacts with viruses, could lead to better strategies for beating Alzheimer’s—a disease that affects almost 30 million people worldwide.
- Benjamin P. Readhead, MBBS, Biomedical Informatics Research Scientist, Icahn Institute for Multiscale Biology, Institute for Next Generation Healthcare, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Joel Dudley, PhD, Director, Next Generation Healthcare Institute, Associate Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Executive Vice President, Precision Health, Mount Sinai Health System
- Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD, Professor, Neurology, Psychiatry, Associate Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, The Mount Sinai Center for Cognitive Health and NFL Neurological Care
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