As someone who gets cold sores this worries me. I know when I am super stressed because a cold sore will begin to appear on my lip. It's always there but stress allows it to replicate, all parts of my immune system are not able to cope during stressful events. I hope this doesn't mean I'm at risk for Alzheimer's disease.<p>At least it's now known when people sleep it clears out beta-amyloid proteins in their brains. Not a cure but at least it's good to know sleep helps flush out the bad stuff.<p><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/brain-may-flush-out-toxins-during-sleep" rel="nofollow">https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/brain-may-flus...</a>
The study referenced in the article says they found HHV-6 in normal brains <i>but</i> there was "increased HHV-6A and HHV-7 in brains of subjects with Alzheimer’s disease" [1]. So I would say that is surprising and worth noting.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(18)30421-5" rel="nofollow">https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(18)30421-5</a>
>> "We mapped out the social network, if you will, of which genes the viruses are friends with and who they're talking to inside the brain," Dudley says. In essence, he says, they wanted to know: "If the viruses are tweeting, who's tweeting back?"<p>Finally, a relatable metaphor for millennials like me!
> They also found that these Alzheimer's risk genes seem to make a person's brain more vulnerable to infection with the two herpes viruses.<p>If that is the case, people predisposed for Alzheimer will naturally have more herpes virus in the brain - does not seem like viruses are anywhere near the root cause of Alzheimer's.
Someone noted (vedtopkar) these are "HHV-6 and HHV-7, which cause roseola". Note that it's an incredibly common infection in babies.<p>There's also another study investigating association between HHV-6 and measles virus serology and brain antibody in autism:<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9756729" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9756729</a><p>Reading these studies makes me think an ineffective blood-brain barrier or a brain-specific defence might trigger common viruses to present a wider family of brain-related diseases.<p>We also know there is literature on encephalitis caused by both HHV-6 and measles. I'm speculating that even in a micro, benign form, this condition is enough the shake brain structure.<p>We should probably investigate a more complex but more generic model of brain diseases.
It always struck me as odd how accepting everyone was of the inevitability and benign-ness of chickenpox. Even though we know the virus is still present after the rash, it seemed strange to me how it was assumed no less visible effects were occurring.<p>HPV is another which I found odd how little importance was placed on preventing its spread growing up. Even today we're still selective about the immunization of people against this virus, knowing it's responsible for most occurrences of cervical cancer.<p>I suspect we'll almost certainly learn something less obvious about herpes of comparable importance to HPVs role in cervical cancer.
This is not surprising. At least one study [1] showed 85% of people's brains are PCR-positive for at least HHV-6. It is also important to keep in mind that herpesviruses have evolved with us (and many other species) and in some ways are considered part of our normal flora. They may also play an important role in the proper development of our immune system.<p>The data in this paper is suggestive (and complicated!!), but there is no convincing mechanism for the virus having anything to do with the development of Alzheimers. The real virology here will be very hard.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11285567" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11285567</a>
Stuff like this always reminds me of:<p><a href="https://helix.northwestern.edu/blog/2010/02/when-science-goes-wrong" rel="nofollow">https://helix.northwestern.edu/blog/2010/02/when-science-goe...</a><p>I'm guessing they are being as careful as they can in regards to selection bias.
People with Alzheimer's seem to have more things in their brain that shouldn't be there than normal. Past findings include types of immune cells that shouldn't be there, various yeast, other types of virus etc. It's not clear if all those are there due to the blood-brain barrier loosing structural integrity, or those cause Alzheimer's in the first place.
Scientists have engineered a version of Herpes virus that can kill cancer cells<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talimogene_laherparepvec" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talimogene_laherparepvec</a>
Offtopic: after declining GDPR consents I was redirected to text only version of the page:<p><a href="https://text.npr.org/" rel="nofollow">https://text.npr.org/</a>
Text only version <a href="https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=621908340" rel="nofollow">https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=621908340</a>
This reminds me of a line from one of Eddie Murphy's comedy routines back in the 80s: "Herpes is like luggage; you keep that s--t forever."