Herpes infection in childhood linked to risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Investigation carried out by specialists from Pablo de Olavide, University of Seville came to the conclusion that Infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) during childhood may pose a risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.especially in asymptomatic older people without a clear diagnosis.

It’s about Job who did research group from the University Laboratory of Functional Neuroscience together with a group from the Center for Molecular Biology of Severo Ochoa (CBM, CSIC-UAM), owned by the Network Biomedical Research Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED).


Thanks to this research determined that the extent of herpes simplex virus type 1 infection is associated with the concentration of beta-amyloid deposits in the brain of asymptomatic older adults, highlighting the role of this virus as a potential risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

This conclusion was recently published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy.and indicates that the specified virus is a causative agent of a human disease, which has a high prevalence in the population and has the ability to settle in the cells of the nervous system.

Origin of infectioninfected in childhood in most cases, Located in the epithelial cells of the mucous membrane of the mouth and nose. from where the virus is transported to the neurons of the trigeminal ganglia – to the facial area – and remains there in a latent state throughout life.

External factors such as stress, persistent inflammation or immunosuppression. among other things, may make it easier for this virus to access the brain during aginga condition that naturally increases the vulnerability of the immune system and the permeability of the blood-brain barrier.

University Professor of Physiology Pablo de Olavide and lead author of the study José Luis Cantero. cites that studies in cellular and animal models have shown that recurrent reactivation of HSV-1 increases brain pathology in Alzheimer’s disease, but “results in humans are very sparse and were obtained in the clinical phases of the disease when brain damage is very obvious.”

A study in which, in addition to José Luis Cantero, researcher from the Laboratory of Functional Neuroscience of the UPR Mercedes Atienza and researchers from the Center for Molecular Biology of Severo Ochoa Maria Jesús Bullido and Isabel Sastre, showed that in asymptomatic older people, the degree of herpes simplex-1 infection is specifically related with beta-amyloid plaques that appear decades before the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease appear.

Research has confirmed that the relationship between HSV-1 and beta-amyloid load in the brain is particularly evident in cases where there is a genetic variant called APOE4, which is considered the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and occurs in about 25% of the population.

These results suggest that HSV-1 viral load may be a risk factor for the development of beta-amyloid plaques, which are considered the earliest neuropathological lesion of Alzheimer’s disease, “which we had no evidence of in older adults,” Maria noted. Jesús Bullido, professor of molecular biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and co-author of the study.