Bethesda Expert on Human Herpesviruses Shows Alzheimer’s Researchers How the Virus Impacts the Brain
A Researcher with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Studies Primates With Herpes
At the 11th International Conference on HHV-6 and HHV-7, researchers showed that the herpes viruses “disrupt mitochondria, autophagy, and even synapses.” While some of the research presented at the meeting was preliminary, “it signaled the rapidly growing interest of virologists, immunologists, and neurobiologists alike in understanding the interaction of viruses and the innate immune system with the brain.”
“Steven Jacobson, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland, uses primates to study the role HHV-6 in MS. His group found that monkeys infected with HHV-6A did not get MS, but did get severe experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). In HHV-6A infected monkeys, brain lesions developed faster, along with a burst of virus production in response to the EAE stimulus. The animals with HHV-6A also died sooner (Leibovitch et al., 2018). Jacobson considers this the strongest evidence that this virus can trigger MS. He told Alzforum he is starting a collaboration to study HHV-6 infection in a marmoset model of AD.” - To read more, CLICK HERE
Source: https://www.alzforum.org/news/conference-coverage/herpesvirus-trigger-many-brain-pathologies
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