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Researchers at the University of Freiburg have shown a corresponding connection in a study with mice. The researchers assume that these results can be transferred to humans, as the University of Freiburg wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “It can be chronic inflammation like chlamydia that occurs at 35,” said research group leader Lavinia Alberi Auber when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency on Tuesday.
What causes Alzheimer’s is still a big mystery in medicine. In recent years, however, there has been increasing evidence that chronic inflammation, most likely caused by viruses, plays a decisive role in the development of the disease.
So far, however, the researchers have primarily focused on infections in later life phases. “We were able to show for the first time that chronic inflammation, which occurs early in life due to a viral pathogen, has a decisive influence on changes in the brain in old age,” said Alberi Auber. The results were recently published in the journal Brain, Behavior, & Immunity.
In order to study the connection, the researchers have developed a new mouse model that works with a special polymer called PolyI:C. The molecule acts as a kind of pseudo-virus to which the organism reacts in a very similar way to a viral infection.
The mice were injected with PolyI:C twice, once before birth during the mother’s pregnancy and the second time in adulthood. The researchers then studied the effects of the inflammatory response on the brain throughout the lifespan of the mice.
Source: Nachrichten
