A New Perspective on Alzheimer’s: Common Virus Under Scrutiny
Recent research has sparked intrigue in the scientific community, suggesting a potential connection between a widespread virus and Alzheimer’s disease. This discovery by scientists at Arizona State University and the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute could provide valuable insights into the progression of this neurodegenerative condition.
Published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, the study explores how exposure to the cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common virus that affects many people, might be linked to the development of Alzheimer’s. The research suggests that CMV could travel to the brain, potentially influencing the disease’s onset.
Benjamin Readhead, an associate research professor at the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, explained the findings: “CMV seems to set up kind of a chronic active infection in their intestines. And then what we saw was that this seems to be a precondition for CMV also being detected in the brain of these same subjects,” he said.
Despite these findings, Readhead notes that the study does not provide a definitive answer to whether CMV causes or merely contributes to Alzheimer’s disease. The research team plans to continue investigating this potential connection.
Readhead expressed optimism about the future of Alzheimer’s research, stating, “I think this is a time to be really hopeful about the future of Alzheimer’s disease research and the prospects of having really powerful treatments in the future.”
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