United States: Researchers who have found a connection between a common virus which is called cytomegalovirus (CMV), and also the development of Alzheimer’s disease in some people. Most people get CMV when they are children, and after the first infection, the virus stays in the body for life, which is somehow often remaining inactive.
CMV’s hallmark antibodies can be found in 9 out of 10 people by the age of 80. Otherwise, the disease-producing virus is classified as a herpesvirus that transmits through body fluids including breast milk, saliva, blood and semen but only if the virus is alive.
In one unfortunate group, the study highlights, the virus may have a biological hole where it can thrive long enough to piggy back the up the gut-brain axis highway or as it known in medical language, the vagus nerve.
As reported by the Sciencealert, upon reaching the brain, the active virus has the capability of worsening the immune system and lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers have discovered a link between a chronic gut infection caused by a common virus and the development of Alzheimer's disease in some people.
— David Jennison (@dajennison) January 6, 2025
Source: ScienceAlert https://t.co/ZMDKgHBDKS
Altogether, this is a worrisome notion, but it is also one that means that antiviral drugs might be able to prevent some people from getting Alzheimer’s, particularly if researchers are then able to develop blood tests that can rapidly identify active, replicating CMV in the digestive tract.
In a study this year some of the team from Arizona State University put forward the microglia subtype involved in Alzheimer’s , named CD83(+) due to it’s genetic idiosyncrasies and elevated immunoglobulin level G4 in the transverse colon as indicating an infection.
Microglia is the name given to the cleaning crew all over the central nervous system. They freely collect plaques, debris and tokens of excess or wasted neurons and synapses, munching them where viable and sounding the call if, infection or damage is beyond containments.
According to the researchers, their study confirmed that they likely identified a biologically distinct subtype of Alzheimer’s, which possibly affects between a quarter and about 45 percent of those who have the disease, said Readhead.
This subtype of Alzheimer’s incorporates the amyloid plaques and tau tangles – the two key pathological markers for Alzheimer’s diagnosis – and has a different virus-antibody-immune cell biology