Does the herpes virus HSV-1 cause Alzheimer’s or accelerate the development of it in
patients? HSV, also known as Herpes simplex virus, is an infection which causes herpes.
This virus can occur anywhere in the body and is divided into 2 types - HSV-1 - primarily causes oral herpes and HSV-2 - is responsible for genetial herpes. On the other hand, Alzheimer's disease is a neurological disorder which causes atrophy (the brain cell to shrink) and causes the death of brain cells. It causes a continuous decline in thinking and also disrupts a person’s ability to function independently. Its symptoms consist of memory loss, memory impairment and more.
Now the big question. Does the herpes virus cause Alzheimer’s or does it accelerate it? A research published in Science Advances shows that the herpes simplex virus HSV-1 might cause Alzheimer’s. This study was conducted by a postdoctoral fellow from Tufts university, Dana Cairns. She used the three dimensional technique by starting with skin cells from the human foreskin. With genetic techniques she changed them to neural stem cells which turned to neural and glial subtypes along with the rest of the neural menagerie within 4 days. Porous silk protein sponges were formed into donut shapes recapitulate the neuron rich grey matter of the brain and were infused with type 1 collagen gel to support the growth of these extensions, which mimics the axon dense white matter. Their 3D brain tissue model allows visualisation and quantification of the neurite patterning and electrophysiological readouts in real time.
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of HSV-1 infection in our established 3D human brain - tissue model to check for correlations with Alzheimer's pathology. After the quasi - brains were running well, it was infected by the HSV-1 virus.
Lastly, this is the first to report a 3D human brain - tissue model which emcompasses so many facets of the physiological human disease like neural loss, neuroinflammation etc. As a whole, it is described as the brain - tissue model of herpes - induced Alzheimer’s which demonstrates rapid, robust and physiologically relevant phenotypes in a short period of time. This will aid the research in the future to possibly find a cure to these diseases.
Refrences:
The Science advances article - Carins, Dana M., et al. “A 3D Human Brain–like Tissue Model of Herpes-Induced Alzheimer's Disease.” Science Advances, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 May 2020, advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaay8828. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaay8828 Image and news article - 6,
Sharon Begley May, et al. “Study Using Human Brain Tissue Shows Herpes Link to Alzheimer's.” STAT, 6 May 2020 https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/06/researchers-show-herpes-link-to-alzheimers
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