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Medicine Science

Common Herpes Virus Causes Signs of Alzheimer's Disease In Brain Cells (newscientist.com) 72

Posted by BeauHD from the connecting-the-dots dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: Mini-brains grown in a dish rapidly develop signs of Alzheimer's disease when infected with the common herpes virus that causes cold sores. The finding adds to growing evidence that some cases of Alzheimer's disease are triggered by viruses and could potentially be treated with antiviral drugs. To understand how Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) might cause Alzheimer's disease, Dana Cairns at Tufts University in the U.S., and her colleagues added the virus to clumps of brain tissue grown in dishes. They made the mini-brains by filling donut-shaped scaffolds with human stem cells that were then coaxed into forming brain cells.

Within three days of being infected with HSV-1, the mini-brains developed large beta-amyloid plaques reminiscent of those found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. They also showed other signs of the condition, such as inflammation and loss of brain cells. In contrast, when the mini-brains were treated with valacyclovir -- a commonly-used herpes drug -- they seemed to be protected against HSV-1 damage. This finding lends support to a clinical trial that is currently underway in the U.S. testing whether valacyclovir helps to treat Alzheimer's disease in people who also have HSV-1, says Cairns. One unresolved question is why HSV-1 -- which is found in about two thirds of people under 50 -- seems to invade the brains of some people but not others. People with weaker blood-brain barriers due to age or genetic factors may be more at risk, says Cairns. The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.
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Common Herpes Virus Causes Signs of Alzheimer's Disease In Brain Cells More

Common Herpes Virus Causes Signs of Alzheimer's Disease In Brain Cells

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  • Thank God we bothered to invest in finding a vaccine or cure for the HSV viruses. Oh wait we didnâ(TM)t.

    • We did. Just because money was spent on something doesn't mean it'll work out.

      A gazillion dollars have been spent on curing cancer, for example. Yes, money has been spent on curing / preventing HSV.

  • Wait... (Score:3)

    by Baby Yoda's Daddy ( 6413160 ) on Thursday May 07, 2020 @12:49AM (#60030902)
    My grandparents had herpes?!
    • You probably have herpes, too. Herpes (HSV-1) is a cause of cold sores, it's not an STD (that's HSV-2). And Herpes Zoster is another name for shingles.
      • HSV-1 can be spread through sex. It is an STD. It can be transmitted through sex. That makes it a Sexually Transmitted Disease. It can be spread other ways too but is definitely spread through sex.

        Please stop posting bad information.

    • They probably got it from Brian [wikipedia.org].

    • probably, somewhere north of 50% of all people have it, some estimates as high as 80%

  • On influenza and neurodenegerative diseases (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Looce ( 1062620 ) * on Thursday May 07, 2020 @01:04AM (#60030934) Journal

    There was an article last year that pointed to possible viral origins of neurodegenerative diseases in general: Can the Flu and Other Viruses Cause Neurodegeneration? [the-scientist.com]

    A neurobiologist saw a duck acting strangely in a video, as if it had Parkinson's disease. In an experiment he then ran, he infected ducks with H5N1 and found that the virus had induced degeneration in the ducks' brains: inflammation and cell death.

    It's hypothesised that influenza viruses can cause the same thing in humans. A literature review revealed a secondary outbreak of Parkinson's disease happening in 1940-1950, following the 1918-1919 H1N1 influenza pandemic.

    As for the current pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect the central nervous system, breach the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain. It can cause symptoms like failure to breathe spontaneously [wiley.com], as well as the anosmia (lack of sense of taste or smell) [nih.gov] that has been seen in the absence of blocked sinuses.

    So, COVID-19 could cause similar neurodegeneration in some time.

    • Yeah, makes you think when your government says "let's get some herd immunity by infecting lots of people with this" (or says "let's open up sooner than maybe we should").

      • or says "let's open up sooner than maybe we should"

        This has been causing herpes ever since legs were invented.

  • Enough of this already! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Thursday May 07, 2020 @01:11AM (#60030944) Journal

    Let's build a wall around viruses and make them pay for it.

  • The pieces are falling into place (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ByteSlicer ( 735276 ) on Thursday May 07, 2020 @02:47AM (#60031076)

    It makes sense. Recent research found a link [sciencealert.com] between genetic damage that weakens the blood-brain barrier and Alzheimer's.
    The current article shows that when the gates are open, pathogens enter the brain, and the immune system responds by building plaques.

  • They made the mini-brains by filling donut-shaped scaffolds with human stem cells that were then coaxed into forming brain cells.

    I always wondered how Homer got his brain.

  • There have been dozens of approaches to Alzheimer's that have shown promise in the petri dish. Exactly zero have worked to alleviate or reverse symptoms in human trials.

    • There have been dozens of approaches to Alzheimer's that have shown promise in the petri dish. Exactly zero have worked to alleviate or reverse symptoms in human trials.

      It seems like this would imply that we don't understand the causes well enough. And should do more research.

  • Because I'm at work, I can't go find all the research articles I've read, AND, I'll probably be off on some of this, but as I recall the amyloid plaques are a result of the body trying to stop invaders. I think it's been seen in the appendix as well as the brain. It's been suggested that many barriers in the body (blood-brain, blood-gut, nerves-everything_else) are made more permeable by processes like systemic inflammation. It's logical then that such inflammation (often starting in the gut where much o

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kackle ( 910159 )
      I'm sorry, I left off my punchline. So I wonder whether "unbalanced" gut bacteria generally causes inflammation, more than just locally, but rather body-wide, allowing invaders/problems all over.

  • Ok, now I *hate* herpes.

  • Is this Mini-Me's brain?
  • I contracted genital herpes few weeks after i agreed sleeping with my partner. He was away for work when I was diagnosed and it took all my courage to tell him. I didn't know what he'd think or say, I thought he'd dump me. His initial response was "well you didn't get it from me" until a day later when he told me he had a cold sore. My dr was a bit of a prude about it and made this big fuss about having to report it to health authorities in order to get authorisation for my script. Luckily it was HPV type 1
  • I contracted genital herpes few weeks after i agreed sleeping with my partner. He was away for work when I was diagnosed and it took all my courage to tell him. I didn't know what he'd think or say, I thought he'd dump me. His initial response was "well you didn't get it from me" until a day later when he told me he had a cold sore. My dr was a bit of a prude about it and made this big fuss about having to report it to health authorities in order to get authorisation for my script. Luckily it was HPV type 1

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