An enormous breakthrough. Research by Professor Ruth Itzhaki and her team at the University of Manchester confirms earlier suspicions about the role of the HSV1 virus as a cause of Alzheimer's disease.

As reported in Science Daily and Slashdot, researchers in the University of Manchester have published research that suggests:

"...that HSV1 (the Herpes cold sore virus) enters the brain in the elderly as their immune systems decline and then establishes a dormant infection from which it is repeatedly activated by events such as stress, immunosuppression, and various infections.
"The ensuing active HSV1 infection causes severe damage in brain cells, most of which die and then disintegrate, thereby releasing amyloid aggregates which develop into amyloid plaques after other components of dying cells are deposited on them."

Possible treatments include antiviral drugs and vaccination.

Journal reference: MA Wozniak, AP Mee and RF Itzhaki. Herpes simplex virus type I DNA is located within Alzheimer's disease amyloid plaques. The Journal of Pathology, Volume 217, Issue 1 , Pages131 - 138 DOI: 10.1002/path.2449