Don’t ignore potential microbial causes of Alzheimer’s and other chronic diseases, researchers say
SAN FRANCISCO — On a day when pharma giant Eli Lilly announced positive results from a clinical trial of an Alzheimer’s drug that clears knotty clumps of protein from the brain, researchers at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit discussed another promising though preliminary approach to treating the disease: targeting viruses and bacteria.
The conversation on Wednesday centered around decades of evidence linking herpes simplex virus type 1, or HSV-1, to Alzheimer’s. Studies in human brain tissue, neural stem cells, and mice have suggested that this common virus, best known for causing cold sores, might trigger the deadly and devastating neurological disease.
