We Just Got More Evidence That Two Common Viruses Can Team Up to Trigger Alzheimer's
An experiment on model brains has provided more support for the idea that the herpes and chickenpox viruses can work together to induce Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Tufts University and The University of Oxford assert they have just shown that the presence of two viruses simultaneously can induce an excess of proteins responsible for Alzheimer's disease's distinctive brain plaques, despite the fact that this assertion is still hotly contested. Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and Alzheimer's disease may be related, according to previous research. In addition to being present in large quantities in the brains of the elderly, HSV-1 has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease in persons who also carry the gene for the disease. The chicken pox virus varicella-zoster, which is similar to the herpes virus in that it can stay latent in nerve cells for years, can eventually manifest as shingles and cause havoc. Although shingles seldom occurs more ...