Read a previous study on this topic from Smith's lab : The Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Deamidase Enhances Propagation but Is Dispensable for Retrograde Axonal Transport into the Nervous System.Review of literature on herpes and Alzheimer's Disease.The company is based at Northwestern University. Smith and his collaborators created a company called Thyreos, Inc, to develop a novel vaccine platform that could protect against a range of herpes viruses in animals and people.He says the term is in reference to a Star Trek episode in which the captain of the Enterprise gets captured by an alien group called the Borg, and he's assimilated by the Borg and becomes one of them is now fighting with the Borg instead of with the Enterprise. He termed this process 'assimilation' because the the kinesin has been assimilated by the virus. Smith said this is the first demonstration in all of virology he is aware of where a virus grabs a cellular protein and makes it part of the viral particle so that that protein now becomes a pro-viral or something that supports infection. It's from a cell that infected beforehand from a previous round of infection. The new study from Smith’s lab discovered how the virus 'kidnaps' the molecular motor protein, kinesin, from epithelial cells and turns it into a defector to help it travel into the peripheral nervous system.Ī big surprise was that the kinesin used is not from the cell that it's currently infecting. Smith says it is likely the virus will enter nervous system nearly every single time that you get exposed, but how it gets into the nervous system has been unknown. Smith's new study published in Nature asked the question: how does the virus invade the nervous system? The answer to that question was a surprising finding that could open the door to a herpes vaccine.įor more than two decades, Smith and a team of investigators have been studying the herpes virus with the hope of creating a vaccine for young people that will prevent them from ever becoming infected. This is evidence that that the virus is entering the nervous system more frequently than once thought.

Smith says scientists have been surprised in recent years to find herpes simplex DNA in the brains of people who died in ways unrelated to the virus. There is increasing evidence it could contribute other types of central nervous system diseases such as dementia or maybe even Alzheimer's disease. S ome carriers will never experience any symptoms, not even a cold sore, but for others it can cause blindness or life-threatening encephalitis. Herpes simplex virus is known for its outbreak of blisters in infected people on or around the genitals, rectum or mouth.

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