Research into the causes of Alzheimer’s is not yet complete. Now a new study shows that head trauma can activate herpes viruses and promote the disease.
Frankfurt am Main – As a neurodegenerative disease, dementia often causes a lot of suffering for those affected and their relatives. While short-term memory and memory are initially impaired, dementia often progresses in such a way that it also deprives those affected of content imprinted in their long-term memory. In the course of the disease, those affected lose more and more of what they have learned, until in the course of a severe course of dementia there can even be a complete loss of perception. This is often accompanied by an increased level of care and need for care of those affected.
As an umbrella term, dementia includes around 50 clinical pictures that are associated with a reduction in memory and mental performance. Its most common form is Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for around two-thirds of all dementia cases. Although exercise, a balanced diet and mental training can prevent it, there are also a number of risk factors that can promote Alzheimer’s. And a recently published British study now suggests a surprising connection for these.
Study shows connection between herpes viruses and head injuries as risk factors for Alzheimer’s dementia
The development of Alzheimer’s dementia is an important question in research and as such the subject of numerous dementia research studies, but its causes are still not fully understood. One thing is clear: In those affected, nerve cells in the brain deteriorate, which further impair their mental performance and perception over the course of the disease.
At present, Alzheimer’s research assumes that deposits of two toxic proteins are largely responsible for the breakdown of nerve cells in those affected: clumps of amyloid-beta and tau fibrils. However, herpes viruses and head injuries, such as concussions in particular, also seem to have a risk of promoting the development of Alzheimer’s dementia under certain circumstances.
Head injuries “awaken” herpes viruses – and release proteins that promote Alzheimer’s disease
At least this is the central finding of a British study that researchers from the Institute for Population Ageing at the University of Oxford worked out together with members of the Universities of Manchester and Tufts. They published their results in the journal Science Signaling. As the researchers discovered, herpes viruses can survive a lifetime in the human body and lead to the dreaded deposits in the brain if they are “awakened”, i.e. reactivated, in a certain way.
Herpes viruses that lie dormant in the body for a long time could be “awakened” by vibrations and injuries to the head, for example, as the scientists pointed out as the next important result of their study in Science Signaling. They reached it by exposing a biotechnologically generated model of human brain tissue to a series of light shocks.
They observed how light shocks activated the dormant herpes viruses. “This reactivation triggered inflammation, the formation of beta-amyloid plaques and the formation of harmful tau proteins,” summarized Leslie K. Ferrarelli, who was involved in the study as a researcher. And because these proteins are known to initiate neurodegenerative processes in the brain, including Alzheimer’s dementia, Ferarelli adds: “The results establish a direct link between two risk factors in a mechanism that may contribute to dementia.”
Head injuries have long been known to science as a risk factor for dementia
While the researchers have now made an important new finding with the connection between head injuries and a reactivation of herpes viruses as the cause of Alzheimer’s dementia, effects on the skull have long been identified as a risk factor for dementia. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) even exists as a clinical picture that classifies a rare form of dementia: cognitive and motor disorders as well as behavioral and personality changes that occur as a result of regular head injuries.
It was first described by US researchers in the 1920s as “punch drunk syndrome”. The reason for the study at that time was a sometimes noticeable limitation of the cognitive performance of professional boxers, who are known to be exposed to a high number of blows to the head during training or competitions.
Because contact sports in particular, and thus numerous team sports such as football or basketball in addition to those from martial arts, offer an increased potential for head injuries, the Alzheimer Research Initiative e.V. association warns on its website to protect the head during sports and to avoid unnecessary vibrations – even minor ones. And not only because there is no therapy for CTE sufferers yet, but because head injuries can also promote Alzheimer’s dementia. For this reason, older people are also recommended to exercise increased caution against falls. (FH)
News
The CDC buried a measles forecast that stressed the need for vaccinations
This story was originally published on ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. ProPublica — Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [...]
Light-Driven Plasmonic Microrobots for Nanoparticle Manipulation
A recent study published in Nature Communications presents a new microrobotic platform designed to improve the precision and versatility of nanoparticle manipulation using light. Led by Jin Qin and colleagues, the research addresses limitations in traditional [...]
Cancer’s “Master Switch” Blocked for Good in Landmark Study
Researchers discovered peptides that permanently block a key cancer protein once thought untreatable, using a new screening method to test their effectiveness inside cells. For the first time, scientists have identified promising drug candidates [...]
AI self-cloning claims: A new frontier or a looming threat?
Chinese scientists claim that some AI models can replicate themselves and protect against shutdown. Has artificial intelligence crossed the so-called red line? Chinese researchers have published two reports on arXiv claiming that some artificial [...]
New Drug Turns Human Blood Into Mosquito-Killing Weapon
Nitisinone, a drug for rare diseases, kills mosquitoes when present in human blood and may become a new tool to fight malaria, offering longer-lasting, environmentally safer effects than ivermectin. Controlling mosquito populations is a [...]
DNA Microscopy Creates 3D Maps of Life From the Inside Out
What if you could take a picture of every gene inside a living organism—not with light, but with DNA itself? Scientists at the University of Chicago have pioneered a revolutionary imaging technique called volumetric DNA microscopy. It builds [...]
Scientists Just Captured the Stunning Process That Shapes Chromosomes
Scientists at EMBL have captured how human chromosomes fold into their signature rod shape during cell division, using a groundbreaking method called LoopTrace. By observing overlapping DNA loops forming in high resolution, they revealed that large [...]
Bird Flu Virus Is Mutating Fast – Scientists Say Our Vaccines May Not Be Enough
H5N1 influenza is evolving rapidly, weakening the effectiveness of existing antibodies and increasing its potential threat to humans. Scientists at UNC Charlotte and MIT used high-performance computational modeling to analyze thousands of viral protein-antibody interactions, revealing [...]
Revolutionary Cancer Vaccine Targets All Solid Tumors
The method triggers immune responses that inhibit melanoma, triple-negative breast cancer, lung carcinoma, and ovarian cancer. Cancer treatment vaccines have been in development since 2010, when the first was approved for prostate cancer, followed [...]
Scientists Uncover Hidden Protein Driving Autoimmune Attacks
Scientists have uncovered a critical piece of the puzzle in autoimmune diseases: a protein that helps release immune response molecules. By studying an ultra-rare condition, researchers identified ArfGAP2 as a key player in immune [...]
Mediterranean neutrino observatory sets new limits on quantum gravity
Quantum gravity is the missing link between general relativity and quantum mechanics, the yet-to-be-discovered key to a unified theory capable of explaining both the infinitely large and the infinitely small. The solution to this [...]
Challenging Previous Beliefs: Japanese Scientists Discover Hidden Protector of Heart
A Japanese research team found that the oxidized form of glutathione (GSSG) may protect heart tissue by modifying a key protein, potentially offering a novel therapeutic approach for ischemic heart failure. A new study [...]
Millions May Have Long COVID – So Why Can’t They Get Diagnosed?
Millions of people in England may be living with Long Covid without even realizing it. A large-scale analysis found that nearly 10% suspect they might have the condition but remain uncertain, often due to [...]
Researchers Reveal What Happens to Your Brain When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep
What if poor sleep was doing more than just making you tired? Researchers have discovered that disrupted sleep in older adults interferes with the brain’s ability to clean out waste, leading to memory problems [...]
How to prevent chronic inflammation from zombie-like cells that accumulate with age
In humans and other multicellular organisms, cells multiply. This defining feature allows embryos to grow into adulthood, and enables the healing of the many bumps, bruises and scrapes along the way. Certain factors can [...]
Breakthrough for long Covid patients who lost sense of smell
A breakthrough nasal surgery has restored the sense of smell for a dozen long Covid patients. Experts at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust successfully employed a technique typically used for correcting blocked nasal passages, [...]
