The Strange Link Between Herpes and Memory

FROM DISCOVER MAGAZINE(APRIL2007)...The Strange Link Between Herpes and Memory. Herpes Simplex virus type 1 may be linked with Alzheimer's Disease. The connection involes apolipoprotein E(protein that helps to transport cholesterol through the body). There are several apolipoprotein E(apoE) genes including APOE-e4, which is a risk factor for developing Alzheimer's. Also, people found with APOE-e4 gene and herpes simplex DNA in their brains are more likely to be afflicted with Alzheimer's. Neuroscientist Howard Federoff and his colleagues from the University of Rochester School of Medicine created mouse-cell cultures that included either the APOE-e4 gene or others such as APOE-e2 or APOE-e3, then infected the cells with herpes. The virus was more likely to be active in the cells with APOE-e4. "APOE-e4 may control the way the virus decides if it is going to be more or less active", Federoff says. How this may predipose a person to Alzheimer's is still unclear but it may involve a receptor molecule for the herpesvirus in the connections between nerve cells. "The failure of the electrical connections, which would cause cognitive impairment, might be linked in some way with the herpes simplex virus," Federoff says. Federoff includes that he doesn't want people to believe just because they may have the herpesvirus or cold sores, they are going to develop Alzheimer's. The virus show just one possibe factor. There are medications that can prevent reactivation of the virus-and cold sores. If it be necessary to prevent herpes simplex infection in the first place to ward off Alzheimer's, "it could spawn an effort to develop prophylactic vaccines", Federoff adds.
Chapter 6 in the textbook is all about memory. At the end of Chapter 6.11, it talks about Alzheimer's(A form of mental deterioration that occurs in some people as they grow old) and it says that a gene that is involved in cholesterol production is also known as a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's. This relates to this article in DISCOVER MAGAZINE.