Prevention of senile dementia: treat herpes before it's too late!

Herpes leads to Alzheimer's disease
Ilya Shcheglov, STRF.ru

One of the herpes viruses, HSV1 (herpes simplex virus type 1), is a notorious causative agent of infectious diseases that causes the formation of itchy, painful blisters around the lips, nostrils or eyes. In developed countries, approximately 20 percent of children become infected with this pathogen before the age of five. By the age of thirty, the virus affects 60 percent of the population, and among the elderly, the prevalence of infection already reaches 85 percent.

First, after the initial infection, the HSV1 virus multiplies in the skin epithelial cells, and then enters the nerve cells (neurons) through the nerve endings of the skin. It is transported into the body of a neuron and embeds its DNA into our chromosomes. In such a "sleeping" state, the virus can exist indefinitely, until as a result of some negative impact (hypothermia or simple weakening of the body), its activation occurs. In turn, the activation of viral DNA inside our chromosomes leads to the synthesis of new viral particles inside nerve cells. Along the nerve processes, the HSV1 virus is transported back to the epithelial cells and causes repeated infection there. Thus, herpes blisters periodically appear on the lips of an infected person.

American scientists from the University of New Mexico, Brown University and the Hearing Institute have developed a new technique for visualizing herpes virus particles to monitor them inside infected neurons. By labeling the viral particles with fluorescent antibodies, the researchers found that HSV1 interacts with a certain protein, which is called the beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP, amyloid precursor protein), after penetrating into the neurons. This leads to a slowdown in transport and disruption of APP functions in the nervous tissue. It is well known that similar processes occur in the development of Alzheimer's disease and other types of senile dementia. In addition, clinicians have repeatedly noted a direct relationship between the frequency of recurrence of herpes infection and the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. In this regard, scientists suggest that they have managed to uncover the mechanism that determines the relationship between viral infection and age-related processes of degradation of nervous tissue. The results of the work are published in the latest issue of the journal PLoS ONE (Herpes Simplex Virus Dances with Amyloid Precursor Protein while Exiting the Cell).

"Doctors observed a direct link between HSV1 infection and Alzheimer's disease, so we wanted to find out what happens in our body," the first author of the article Shi–Bin Chen (Shi-Bin Cheng) quotes the EurekAlert portal (Researchers link herpes to Alzheimer's disease). "What we were able to see in the experiments revealed the mechanism of communication between diseases."

The head of the study, Elaine Bearer, adds: "The fact that the herpes virus is involved in the processes that lead to cognitive disorders in the future is no longer in doubt. The question is how big this participation is. We need to investigate the effect of antiviral drugs used to treat acute herpes infection in order to determine whether they can slow down or prevent the development of senile dementia."

In conclusion, scientists recommend treating herpes as quickly as possible in order to minimize the time the virus stays in nerve cells and transport through them. The faster the treatment is carried out, the faster the virus will return to a safe, "dormant" state.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.04.2011