Two years after the public presentation of their work, the team of Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center) headed by Fernando Valdivieso, university professor in Molecular Biology, props up his thesis with additional evidence that demonstrates the "absolute correspondence between the genes implicated in the arrival of herpes virus to the brain and Alzheimer".

The combination of in vivo experiments -with mice- and genetic studies allowed to demonstrate, first, the voyage of the herpes virus through the central nervous system to the brain, through the blood stream, once having deceived the organisms' immune defenses. The "carrier" of the virus is a type E apolipoprotein -also implicated in the transportation of cholesterol and related, as well, to the risk of hypercholesterolemia- ApoE 4. The direct cause-effect relation is yet to be demonstrated and the mere accumulation of herpes virus in the brain is not an assurance of neuronal degeneration and dementia, but the Spanish investigators know that the neuro invasion is greater when larger is the ApoE 4 levels, and that the binomial virus plus apolipoprotein is more than a probable ticket to Alzheimer.

Other factors

Also interacting are additional factors such as age: the older, the larger the viral load; female gender -women are more susceptible to the disease; and stress, which is capable of waking up this virus and other viruses of their latency and set them to attack the organism.

The lip herpes virus is the commonest, and one of many herpes virus with which humans coexist. 90% of the adults have within their organism some type of herpes and, of them, 60%, are lodged in the brain. The greater part of the time the viruses' lye dormant until genetic or environmental factors wake them. In many people herpes viruses never manifest in spite of them being present.

In synthesis 'although we cannot say that the herpes virus is the cause of Alzheimer, the evidences are more and more strong'. Other viruses can be implicated, but 'this one would be prevalent' emphasized Valdivieso.