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According to a study recently published in&nbsp;Neuron, there may be a link between the herpes virus and Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease.&nbsp;As one of the most prevalent causes of death in the U.S., Alzheimer&rsquo;s is a highly researched illness, and these findings&nbsp;could put physicians in a better position to diagnose it.&nbsp;&nbsp;Analyzing&nbsp;brain tissue&nbsp;supplied by&nbsp;the Mount Sinai Brain bank&nbsp;from&nbsp;622&nbsp;individuals with Alzheimer&rsquo;s and 322 without the disease, researchers found that those with&nbsp;early-stage&nbsp;Alzheimer&rsquo;s had herpes virus levels twice that of those who&nbsp;were healthy.&nbsp;The viral genome was discovered to be present in roughly 30% of the Alzheimer&rsquo;s brain, and was practically undetectable in those without the disease.&nbsp;The study found that the herpes virus may have influence on genes associated with Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;The HHV6A and HHV7 strains of the virus were the two&nbsp;found in elevated levels in brain tissue of those with&nbsp;Alzheimer&rsquo;s and&nbsp;are common forms of herpes that nearly everyone carries.&nbsp;Unlike the cold sore strain of the disease, these strains usually do not cause any complications.&nbsp;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
A multi-omic assessment of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Alzheimers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Alzheimers</a> and the potential role of Herpes virus, w/ independent replication X2 <a href="https://t.co/I7FLTHWfIM">https://t.co/I7FLTHWfIM</a> &hellip; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OA</a><a href="https://twitter.com/NeuroCellPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NeuroCellPress</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CellCellPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CellCellPress</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/jdudley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jdudley</a> and colleagues <a href="https://twitter.com/IcahnMountSinai?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IcahnMountSinai</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/IcahnInstitute?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IcahnInstitute</a> <a href="https://t.co/9XbQi2wW16">pic.twitter.com/9XbQi2wW16</a>
&mdash; Eric Topol (@EricTopol) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1009896672401547265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2018</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Surprised by&nbsp;their initial&nbsp;findings,&nbsp;the researchers conducted the same study using samples from two other brain banks and achieved similar results.&nbsp;Despite these repeated findings, many are still skeptical about the link between herpes and Alzheimer&rsquo;s. John Hardy, a geneticist at University College London said&nbsp;&ldquo;There are some families with mutations in specific genes who always get this disease. It&rsquo;s difficult to square that with a viral&nbsp;aetiology. I&rsquo;d urge an extremely cautious interpretation of these results.&rdquo;&nbsp;Researchers assert that these results do not show that herpes is the cause of Alzheimer&rsquo;s by any means, but that the virus does appear to accelerate changes in the brain leading to the disease.&nbsp;They hope that these findings&nbsp;could be the beginning of research into new areas of the brain to target in treating Alzheimer&rsquo;s.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c3YDFVdsz6E" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>Sources:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/21/health/herpes-virus-alzheimers-study/index.html">CNN</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(18)30421-5">Neuron</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/21/alzheimers-link-to-herpes-virus-in-brain-say-scientists">The Guardian</a>

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Link Between Herpes Virus and Alzheimer’s Disease

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According to a study recently published in Neuron, there may be a link between the herpes virus and Alzheimer’s disease. As one of the most prevalent causes of death in ...

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