- (HealthDayNews) -- There's a link between the common
respiratory bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae and amyloid plaques found in
the brains of people with non-hereditary Alzheimer's disease.
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- That's the news from a study by researchers at the Philadelphia
College of Osteopathic Medicine's Center for the Study of Chronic Diseases
of Aging.
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- The research in mice appears in the April issue of the
journal Neurobiology of Aging.
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- The researchers have spent several years studying this
link. This new research builds on their previous finding that C. pneumoniae
is present in 90 percent of brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.
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- In this most recent study, the researchers showed that
when the bacteria was sprayed into the noses of mice that are not predisposed
to amyloid plaques, it caused progressive deposition of amyloid plaques,
creating a partial model of Alzheimer's disease.
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- "We believe this could be a trigger mechanism for
the pathology in Alzheimer's disease," lead researcher Brian Balin
says in a prepared statement.
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- "People have been suspecting this for decades but
could not find anything. It is very difficult to pinpoint an infectious
cause for a progressive, chronic disease. We also believe that our isolation
of Chlamydia pneumoniae from the human Alzheimer's diseased brain and induction
of pathology in normal mice is proof of principle that this can be a causative
mechanism turning on pathology," Balin says.
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- More information
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- The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about http://nihseniorhealth.gov/alzheimersdisease/toc.html
Alzheimer's disease.
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