[HN Gopher] Scientists find links between Alzheimer's, herpes, a...
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Scientists find links between Alzheimer's, herpes, and head trauma
Author : wglb
Score : 108 points
Date : 2025-01-31 23:23 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.statnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.statnews.com)
| ellisv wrote:
| Seems to be in reference to this article:
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39698934/
| flobosg wrote:
| This is the article referred by STAT (unfortunately paywalled):
| https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scisignal.ado6430
| sitkack wrote:
| https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Alzheimers-
| Dementia-155...
| flobosg wrote:
| That link is a poster abstract, not the actual paper. Still
| better than nothing.
| jamal-kumar wrote:
| Oh yeah for sure. Other herpes link: It can be even worse if you
| somehow get it in your nose, where it could be a causal factor in
| "learning and behavioral deficiencies and violence in children
| and adults", as well as other risks from other forms of herpes
| like HHV-6 via that route, nice and close to the brain, and also
| possibly linked to the development of multiple sclerosis. [1][2]
| It's worth noting to those that don't know that this virus lies
| dormant in your spinal cord and can eventually travel to the
| brain, causing encephalitis and as the research has actually been
| saying for some time now is probably also linked to alzheimers,
| and there's also an increased incidence of alzheimers between
| spouses [3]. Lots of indications that we should probably figure
| out a way to stamp these viruses out if we're to totally be past
| these extremely debilitating and life ending conditions as a
| species.
|
| [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8560783/
|
| [2] https://www.livescience.com/15453-nose-gateway-virus-
| brain-d...
|
| [3] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2945313/
| mrtesthah wrote:
| The current best effort at _curing_ HSV by way of gene-editing
| out the latent virus from infected cells is being conducted by
| the Fred Hutch center. You can donate to their research here:
|
| https://secure.fredhutch.org/site/TR?px=1802786&pg=personal&...
|
| In the meantime, taking anti-virals will reduce the risk of
| alzheimers:
|
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8234998/
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| Silicon nitride might also be a novel therapy for HSV, if it
| could perhaps be formulated as a skin scream.
|
| https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/16/12657
| nntwozz wrote:
| Some evidence suggests that some viral infections such as Herpes
| simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) may be associated with dementia, but
| there are conflicting results and the association with
| Alzheimer's is unclear as of 2024.[95][96][97]
|
| -- Wikipedia
| jamal-kumar wrote:
| It will bear out in studies when they start to see whatever
| results come from giving head injury patients and other at risk
| groups antivirals to hopefully measurably prevent these
| conditions from arising
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| There's been enough grift in the Alzheimer's research community
| it's hard to believe anything
| yieldcrv wrote:
| ironic
| throwawaymaths wrote:
| the nhs wales vaccine study is pretty solid
| magicalhippo wrote:
| It's always herpes, to paraphrase Dr. House...
|
| What makes herpes so special? The fact that it sticks around?
| glouwbug wrote:
| Maybe the fact that everyone has it
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| It's estimated 2/3rds of adults globally have it.
|
| That's a majority, but far from "everyone".
| feverzsj wrote:
| It's just they haven't got the virus yet. Or the viral load
| is too low to be detectable by current technique.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| we definitely need a way to consider multi variable ailments
| better
|
| our entire scientific institution and method just tests for one
| thing, says nope, and dismisses any more complex thought on the
| subject. unless you do it yourself, which is a very high bar to
| accomplish
| tsimionescu wrote:
| What would a multi variable model look like where, say, both
| herpes and plaques contributed to Alzheimer, but you couldn't
| find proper correlation with either taken individually?
|
| There are plenty of diseases where we have identified multiple
| risk factors successfully. We have examples of diseases where
| either risk factor alone is often causative (e.g. pulmonary
| cancer can be caused by smoking, or by long term asbestos
| exposure, and if exposed to both, fixing just one won't make
| the risk very low; and there are of course many other
| substances that can cause this). And we have also identified
| diseases where you need two (or sometimes more) separate
| factors to trigger it (e.g. shingles is a diseases that is
| triggered in individuals that previously had chickenpox, but
| generally only if their immune system is weakened by something
| else, typically old age).
| locusofself wrote:
| As someone who gets a wicked cold sore every year I always hate
| hearing about stuff like this. It's terrifying what can happen to
| babies if you kiss them with HSV-1.
| feverzsj wrote:
| Don't worry. Everyone has the virus.
| aussieguy1234 wrote:
| Like the article says, 80% of people have herpes wether they
| know it or not.
| suzzer99 wrote:
| I assume 100% of redheads like me have it.
| etrautmann wrote:
| What's the connection?
| tiagod wrote:
| I Googled "redhead herpes" and the first result was for
| "Virucidal activity of ginger essential oil against
| caprine alphaherpesvirus-1". I found that a weirdly funny
| bahaviour of the Google search natural language parser
| anigbrowl wrote:
| We're super hot
| bolognafairy wrote:
| slayyyy
| FuckButtons wrote:
| My mum gave me HSV, she currently has Alzheimer's and has
| forgotten who everyone, including me is. She is 64.
| quanto wrote:
| > the latest work addresses one of the biggest criticisms of the
| microbial theory of Alzheimer's: HSV-1's ubiquity. Alzheimer's
| impacts only about 10% of the population -- if HSV-1 were causing
| it, why are there so many people who are repositories of the
| virus but not developing the disease?
|
| That's the rub. Even if this non-traditional brain model is to be
| taken at face value, there is a missing variable somewhere,
| arguably more important; HSV-1, at best, would be a contributing
| factor.
| Veserv wrote:
| I know right. If polio causes paralysis then why do only 0.5%
| of people who contract polio become paralyzed? Checkmate.
|
| That is mixing up necessary versus sufficient. If _all_ people
| who develop Alzheimer's contracted HSV-1 prior to developing
| Alzheimer's and _all_ people who did not contract HSV-1 do not
| develop Alzheimer's (technically implied by my first
| statement), then you can make a good case for causality.
| Obviously you can do better, but that is a good start.
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