Chickenpox Virus May Trigger the Onset of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease can begin almost imperceptibly, often masquerading in the early months or years as forgetfulness that is common in older age. What causes the disease remains largely a mystery.

But researchers at Tufts University and the University of Oxford, using a three-dimensional human tissue culture model mimicking the brain, have shown that varicella zoster virus (VZV), which commonly causes chickenpox and shingles, may activate herpes simplex (HSV), another common virus, to set in motion the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Normally HSV-1 – one of the main variants of the virus – lies dormant within the neurons of the brain, but when it is activated it leads to accumulation of tau and amyloid beta proteins, and loss of neuronal function—signature features found in patients with Alzheimer’s.

“Our results suggest one pathway to Alzheimer’s disease, caused by a VZV infection which creates inflammatory triggers that awaken HSV in the brain,” said Dana Cairns, GBS12, a research associate in the Biomedical Engineering Department. “While we demonstrated a link between VZV and HSV-1 activation, it’s possible that other inflammatory events in the brain could also awaken HSV-1 and lead to Alzheimer’s disease.”


https://neurosciencenews.com/chickenpox-virus-alzheimers-21145/

 

My Mother developed AZD shortly after having shingles.

 

I'm sure I read that some people who caught Covid ended up developing shingles within a few months in greater numbers than would normally be seen. And some people who had previously had shingles before Covid developed it again after Covid. So that's a bummer for all those people. Having a Covid vaccine seems to increase the risk of shingles too.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/risk-of-shingles-rises-after-covid-19-infection-study-1.5966244
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/shingles-after-covid-vaccine
https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2022/covid-and-shingles.html

 

Considering the very large numbers of people who have been infected with chicken pox if it was true that it led to Alzheimers disease i would expect that the percentage of older people with this diagnosis woild be far higher than what media tells us .

 

Not necessarily. The recent finding that EBV infection is the main cause of MS doesn't have a 100% conversion rate. There are other factors at play, probably multiple.

Similar to how car crashes can cause deadly injury, but they don't all do.