Alzheimer's Gene Welcomes Cold Sore Virus

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Those irritating cold sores you get around the mouth might be putting you at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease as well -- if you have a certain type of gene associated with the mind-robbing condition.

University of Rochester Medical Center researchers are now linking the ApoE-4 gene with the herpes simplex 1 (HSV-1) virus, which is most commonly associated with cold sores but can also travel to the brain. People who have that form of the Apo-E gene are often more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, and this study shows HSV-1 may be one reason why.

The researchers discovered the association between the two in a study carried out in mice with various forms of the ApoE gene and HSV. While HSV-1 was found in equal measures in the brains of all of the mice, the virus, which stays in the body for a lifetime and alternates between active and latent periods, was more likely to go into its active stage in mice with the ApoE-4 version.

Researchers aren't sure how HSV-1 and ApoE-4 are working together to foster Alzheimer's but speculate this form of the ApoE gene may be less capable of reigning in the virus than other forms, thus allowing it to become active more often and damage brain functioning.

They write, "These new data argue that the continued exploration into the mechanism of a combined ApoE-4-HSV-1 disease causing process is warranted."

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SOURCE: Neurobiology of Aging, published online Jan. 3, 2007