INDONESIAKININEWS.COM - A warning has been issued to anyone who suffers cold sores. It comes amid the risk of a deadly disease, according t...
Links have been made between cold sores and cognitive decline, which is a sign of Alzheimer's disease. Professor Ruth Itzhaki and her team headed up the project, which spanned 30 years.
Professor Itzhaki, visiting professorial fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, said: "This striking result appears to confirm that, in humans, infections such as VZV can cause an increase in inflammation in the brain, which can reactivate dormant HSV-1.
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"The damage in the brain by repeated infections over a lifetime would lead eventually to the development of Alzheimer’s or dementia," she said.
"This would mean vaccines could play a greater role than just protecting against a single disease, because they could also indirectly, by reducing infections, provide some protection against Alzheimer’s," she added. They found that HSV-1 DNA is present in the brain of numerous older people.
The researchers later indicated that the virus, when in the brain, in combination with a specific genetic factor, confers a higher risk of developing dementia. Subsequent studies revealed "major links" between the effects of the cold sore virus and characteristic features of Alzheimer's disease.
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Source: birminghamlive
