Slashdot Mirror
Cold Sore Virus May Be Alzheimer's Smoking Gun
Science Daily is reporting that the virus behind cold sores has been found to be a major cause of the insoluble protein plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease sufferers. Researchers believe the herpes simplex virus is a significant factor in developing the debilitating disease and could be treated by antiviral agents such as acyclovir, which is already used to treat cold sores and other diseases caused by the herpes virus. Another future possibility is vaccination against the virus to prevent the development of Alzheimer's in the first place. The research was just published in the Journal of Pathology (abstract).
I just lost my train of thought.
Man my mouth hurts but I don't remember why.
Alzheimers runs in families, which is particularly worrisome for me since I have it on both sides of my family. If it is caused by a virus, then why is it passed down in genes? Are some people more sucseptible to this virus, thus there is a gene for vulnerabilty to this virus, instead of a gene for Alzheimers??
Let's wait until the anti-vaccine douchebags hear about THIS. Doesn't this vaccine turn your prepubescent daughter into a whore?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
in a few weeks, poor innocent little children will get visits from aunt bertha and grandma marge, and the first thing the strange smelly relatives will do is find the innocent children, exclaim "my how you've grown!" or "aren't you the cutest thing, i could eat you up!" and, approaching the children, who will now be rapt in horror, they will proceed to plant wet sloppy kisses, over the protestations and gyrations of the children sturggling to break free of the bear arm grip
and, the kids are right to object. they are trying to avoid herpes and alzheimers
kisses from old relatives is a brain mummifying disease
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
With these findings in mind, it would be interesting if someone were to do a study and see if there's a correlation between Alzheimer's incidence and people who have a tendency to get cold sores. Since only 20-40% (according to TFA) of HSV-1 carriers develop cold sores, I wonder if being susceptible to outbreaks indicates a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's later in life. You'd have to correct for all sorts of environment factors, but still, as someone who gets cold sores something awful that would be a very interesting study. Anyways, great article, it's good news if something comes out of this. HSV in its different varieties is already known to be responsible for quite a few diseases so only good can come out of more research into it.
Can one be tested for the herpes simplex virus? I never had an outbreak, but one winter when I was cyclilng in -17C (stupid, yeah, gimme a break, I love cycling) I got a cold sore on the tip of my nose. So now I would like to be able to dismiss the idea I have herpes simplex. But if I have it, I'd like to start a therapy ASAP - I don't want to get Alzheimer's.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Might not be the only culprit here. Chicken pox (V. zoster) and Shingles (H. zoster) are related to HSV1 and HSV2. Many people may have had either -or both- of these infections as children or adults and carry the virus in a dormant state in their body. The research does not address these other -possible very prevalent- vectors in AD.
Sig this!
Nastiest Alzheimer's joke ever:
Guy brings his wife to the doctor. Doctor tells him "We screwed up the lab results. She either has AIDS or Alzheimers."
Guy says "great, what should I do?"
Doctor says "Drop her off about a mile away from home. If she finds her way home, don't fuck her!"
This is excellent news for most slashdotters since the herpes 'cold-sore' virus is typically transmitted by kissing.
What you said reminds me of when I told a friend a stupid joke. He responded by saying, "It sounds like someone just made that up."
BHT stands for butylated hydroxytoluene. I'd be worried about the metabolites of anything that has toluene as a component. Think paint thinner. That stuff is not healthy in any significant quantity. BHT has been used as a food preservative since way back, but that too doesn't mean it's good for you. And it implies it's NOT good for you in any appreciable quantity. The reason things work as preservatives is because they're more or less toxic to living things, like bacteria, but in larger quantities also to larger living things.
Let someone else be the guinea pig on this....
You should read the other papers by Wozniak and Itzhaki. They include, for example, studies on how the HSV1 virus in-situ in nerve cells affects the expression of tau and beta-amyloid proteins, causing them to generate the exact types of plaques seen in AD patients.
They've done a pretty damn compelling job. If they didn't have to dot their i's and cross their t's to the nth degree, I'd have called this one and said it's in the bag years ago.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
they think it causes it:
They propose that a weakened immune system allows the virus into the brain.
There, it causes flare-ups in the brain at various times when the person is stressed etc. Basically, just like the cold sores on your lips.... but in the brain.
These cause the cells to create this non-soluble plaque stuff which then gets left behind when the cells themselves die.
The treatment with anti-virals would presumably prevent, or decrease, the number of "flare-ups" in the brain and therefore reduce the rate at which this Alzheimer's inducing plaque is formed.
(although i'm not clear on whether the damage is caused by the plaques or if the plaques are just a marker of all the cells that have been destroyed and the disease is actually caused by that destruction.)
if you've had cold sores and paid attention to how they seem to develop one can see how it would be destructive.
1) You start out perfectly fine.
2) For whatever reason this virus starts reproducing in some of your cells (highly localized)
3) a cluster of blisters forms.
4) After a few days, the "blisters" stop forming and you're left with a moderately significant wound that takes a while to heal.
Now imagine this happening in your brain... and remember that nerve cells, unlike skin cells, don't really reproduce much (if at all).
(Incidentally, i'm one of the people for whom Abreva (an OTC medicine) works very well. If I put it on in time it stops the progression in its tracks. HIGHLY recommended.
now if i could only figure out how to rub it on my brain.....)