Although Alzheimer’s disease was described more than a century ago, at present the causes that induce this neurological disease, suffered by the recently deceased Adolfo Suárez, are still not known with certainty. In cases in which the disease develops “sporadically” and not due to mutations in genes, which account for 99 percent of the total, the latest research pointed to infectious agents as the primary triggers of neuronal death. A new study led by the Autonomous University of Madrid delves in the same direction, placing fungal invasions of the central system as possible factors linked to the appearance of cognitive impairment, dementia and vascular deficiency typical of Alzheimer’s.
The team of researchers, belonging to the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center (CBMSO), the UAM-CSIC mixed center, and the Carlos III Health Institute, had already demonstrated the existence of fungal infections in patients with neurological diseases, such as some retinopathies. or multiple sclerosis. On this occasion, the scientists detected high levels of proteins and polysaccharides of fungal origin in the blood of Alzheimer’s patients. Through exhaustive analysis of brain samples from deceased patients, the team confirmed the presence of mycosis disseminated throughout the central nervous system and the coexistence of various species of fungi in the same patient, although the latter varied depending on the stage of development of the disease. the illness.
Human beings suffer from mycosis relatively frequently (infections caused by fungi, such as ringworm or fungi that are spread in swimming pools) that only cause a discomfort or an aesthetic problem, and can be treated effectively. However, there are also certain types of mycosis that occur in immunocompromised patients and that can lead, as research seems to suggest, in serious neurodegenerative disorders.
Despite these important evidences, today we do not have enough data to determine the origin of this lethal disease , twinned with cancer. However, the latest clinical trials seem to favor the detection of the disorder long before the first symptoms, which does not lead us towards its prevention but towards the treatment of its effects and its desired cure.
