Alzheimer's peels away a person layer by layer. The
short-term memory slips in the early stages of the disease.
Recognizing relatives and friends fades later. Those
little traits that make up a personality vanish along the
way. The progression is irreversible. Most people with
Alzheimer's have the late-onset type, with symptoms
appearing in their mid-60s. Early-onset, which is rare,
occurs between a person's 30s and mid-60s. Alzheimer's is
the most common cause of dementia among older adults. An
estimated 5 million Americans have it. This is what
alzheimer's does. A human brain has tens of billions of neurons,
cells that transmit information through electrical
and chemical signals. Neurons send messages between different
parts of the brain, and from the brain to muscles and organs.
Basically, Alzheimer's disease disrupts the communication
between neurons, resulting in loss of function and cell death.
That disruption is thought to be due to a build-up of two
proteins: amyloid and tau. Now, for the origins. How does this
whole process begin, in the first place? Inflammation could
be key -- destroying the physical connections in the
brain. It triggers the build-up of the toxic proteins. A study
published in the journal Neuron links Alzheimer's to long-term
inflammation caused by two herpes species that infect most
people as infants and then lie dormant for years. The study
authors emphasized they did not determine that these viruses
cause Alzheimer's. But the findings suggest that viruses
could fuel an immune response that might increase the
accumulation of amyloid, as it tries to capture the virus,
resulting in the plaques that are a sign of
Alzheimer's. And researchers say herpes might not be the only
infection that leads to a destructive immune response in
the brain. The encouraging news is that the findings, could
lead to new therapeutic strategies down the road,
according to one researcher. That could mean developing
vaccines or drugs to prevent infections most linked to
Alzheimer's disease. Does this mean a cure is imminent?
No. But it does mean that researchers could be nearing a
clue of how to prevent it.