Dementia because ... ever sexually infected?

Three new studies have found a correlation between Alzheimer's and herpes strains, including sexually transmitted strains and other mysterious relatives.

Research by authors from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Arizona State University has found that herpes virus density is twice as high as that of normal people in people who have died of Alzheimer's disease - dementia. Most popular memory.

The study was immediately noticeable when published in the journal Neuron, because when it comes to herpes, people often associate genital herpes and mouth-to-mouth sores (HSV-1, HSV-). 2) cause. However, the scientists explained that the herpes they found were only herpes HHV-6A and HHV-7.

Herpes strains, including the herpes simplex strain and non-sexually transmitted strains, but the pathogenesis mechanism is unknown, are thought to be closely related to Alzheimer's dementia - (photo: LIVE SCIENCE).

These two herpes are quite common, using humans as hosts. Their pathogenicity is far from clear, although it has been found to increase in patients with neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

In this new study, scientists discovered that these two herpes viruses created an immune cascade . The human immune system mobilizes forces to fight against them. Every war causes damage, this damage is located in the brain and is Alzheimer's.

HHV 6A can even adjust the expression of some genes, including genes that directly affect the formation of amyloid plaques. The formation and accumulation of amyloid plaque has long been known as the cause of Alzheimer's disease.

The levels of herpes virus found in the brains of dead people are also inversely proportional to the scores of memory tests they are required to perform when they are alive.

"I don't think we can confirm whether the herpes virus is the main cause of Alzheimer's or not, but obviously they are disturbing and participating in the network directly causing Alzheimer's" - Dr. Joel Dudley, Director The director of the new-generation Health Research Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said.

In another study published on Neuron earlier, the authors from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (USA) also found an increase in amyloid in the rat brain when they were exposed to HHV6A, HHV6B and both herpes cause sexual disease HSV-1.

Another recently published study by Taiwan targets the herpes simplex strain that causes sexually transmitted diseases. 33,000 volunteers participated in the study, and scientists found signs of increased Alzheimer's risk by 2.5 times in people with herpes infection.