How viral infections might contribute to neurodegeneration

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SusanJ
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How viral infections might contribute to neurodegeneration

Post by SusanJ »

Cell study, but interesting nonetheless.
We could show that the viral proteins are incorporated both into the cellular membrane and into the extracellular vesicles. Their presence increased protein aggregate spreading between cells, both by direct cell contact or by extracellular vesicles. The viral ligands mediated an effective transfer of aggregates into recipient cells, where they induced new aggregates. The ligands act like keys that unlock the recipient cells and thus sneak in the dangerous cargo," Vorberg says. "Certainly, our cellular models do not replicate the many aspects of the brain with its very specialized cell types. However, independent of the tested cell type producing the pathologic aggregates, the presence of viral ligands clearly increased the spreading of misfolded proteins to other cells. All in all, our data suggests that viral ligand-receptor interactions can in principle affect transmission of pathologic proteins. This is a novel finding.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211 ... ation.aspx

Full paper.
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SusanJ
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Re: How viral infections might contribute to neurodegeneration

Post by SusanJ »

Interesting to also consider the OAS1 genetic risk as covered in this post.

Since I'm heterozygote on the OAS1 gene, I intend to be extra cautious about avoiding viral infections where possible. Viruses have never been my friend.
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