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Are infections seeding some cases of Alzheimer’s disease?

A fringe theory links microbes in the brain with the onset of dementia. Now, researchers are taking it seriously.
  1. Alison Abbott

    1. Alison Abbott is a writer based in Munich, Germany.

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Coloured scanning electron micrograph of spherical herpes simplex virus-1 particles being released from a host cell

Some scientists think that microbes such as the herpes simplex virus 1 (shown here on an epithelial cell) could trigger some cases of Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: SPL

Two years ago, immunologist and medical-publishing entrepreneur Leslie Norins offered to award US$1 million of his own money to any scientist who could prove that Alzheimer’s disease was caused by a germ.

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Nature 587, 22-25 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03084-9

Updates & Corrections

  • Clarification 10 November 2020: An earlier version of this story did not give the primary affiliation for Yue-Ming Li.

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