Microbes and Alzheimer's Disease: New Findings Call for a Paradigm Change

Jürgen G Haas; Richard Lathe

doi:10.1016/j.tins.2018.07.001

Microbes and Alzheimer's Disease: New Findings Call for a Paradigm Change

Trends Neurosci. 2018 Sep;41(9):570-573. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2018.07.001. Epub 2018 Jul 19.

Authors

Jürgen G Haas¹, Richard Lathe²

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: juergen.haas@ed.ac.uk.
² Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: richardlathe@ed.ac.uk.

PMID: 30033181
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2018.07.001

Abstract

Two papers in Neuron provide compelling new indications of a link between herpesviruses and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Readhead et al. report an increased abundance of human herpesviruses 6A and 7 (HHV-6A/7) in AD brain, whereas Eimer et al. show that binding of the AD signature protein, Aβ, to herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and HHV-6 surface glycoproteins causes fibrillar Aβ agglutination that can protect against viral challenge.

Keywords: HHV-6; HHV-7; HSV-1; Neurodegeneration; antimicrobial protein; herpesvirus.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease*
Brain
Herpesvirus 1, Human*
Herpesvirus 6, Human
Humans

Grants and funding

MR/P011349/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom