Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition, the symptoms develop gradually over many years and eventually become more severe. It affects the brain and cognitive function until it gets so severe the person cannot care for themselves anymore. There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease. In advanced stages, loss of brain function can cause dehydration, poor nutrition, or infection, and these complications can unfortunately become fatal. There are genetic factors to this disease, however, some things that play a role could be controllable, so let’s take a look at it.
Researchers have discovered a link between Alzheimer’s, head injuries, and the herpes simplex virus type 1, which is common, lifelong, and often in a dormant state with periodic reactivation. Both the virus and head injuries are a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. But what if they are related?
The study showed the inflicted repetitive head trauma reactivated the virus, and the brain model exhibited classic Alzheimer’s pathology markers-amyloid plaques, inflammation, and neuronal damage. Continuing the experiment, even more simulated head injury led to intensification of the markers, but compared to that, the tissue without the virus showed only limited damage.
Finding this tie between different risk factors could open a new chapter in the treatment of head injuries, since we now know that antiviral and anti-inflammatory drug classes could be beneficial and serve as an early intervention for long-term brain degeneration (ex. Alzheimer’s disease). Another way of risk reduction would be better sports protection equipment.
Resources:
D. M. Cairns, et al. (2025) Repetitive injury induces phenotypes associated with Alzheimer’s disease by reactivating HSV-1 in a human brain tissue model.
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