Tag Archives: Alzheimer’s disease

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Here's the article:

Different Brain Regions are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease

By Diana Pisa, Ruth Alonso, Alberto Rábano, Izaskun Rodal, Luis Carrasco

Scientific Reports 5, Article number: 15015 (2015)
doi :10.1038/srep15015
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Abstract

The possibility that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has a microbial aetiology has been proposed by several researchers. Here, we provide evidence that tissue from the central nervous system (CNS) of AD patients contain fungal cells and hyphae. Fungal material can be detected both intra- and extracellularly using specific antibodies against several fungi. Different brain regions including external frontal cortex, cerebellar hemisphere, entorhinal cortex/hippocampus and choroid plexus contain fungal material, which is absent in brain tissue from control individuals. Analysis of brain sections from ten additional AD patients reveals that all are infected with fungi. Fungal infection is also observed in blood vessels, which may explain the vascular pathology frequently detected in AD patients. Sequencing of fungal DNA extracted from frozen CNS samples identifies several fungal species. Collectively, our findings provide compelling evidence for the existence of fungal infection in the CNS from AD patients, but not in control individuals.

My comments: Did you know that 90% of disorders in the world are inflammatory disorders? The question I have is what came first? If this study fact, then people with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) have fungi in their brain. I wonder what came first? Is it the inflammation in the brain that creates the environment to allow fungi OR is it the fungi that increase the AD? Dr. Merry

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I understand that the primary problem in Parkinson's Disease (PD) is an area of the brain called the substantia nigra, whose neurotransmitter is dopamine. Dopamine drugs help people with PD. In Alzheimer's Disease, the area of the brain in trouble is the hippocampus, which helps us put memory into the long term category. However, the neurons need to fire to secrete the neurotransmitter in the first place. Maybe the problem is lack of stimulation of the nerve cells, which in turn, would not secrete the dopamine and other neurotransmitters in the first place. All neurons have one thing in common: they need to fire to be healthy!