European scientists have found that endogenous retroviruses, DNA fragments of ancient viruses embedded in the human genome, contribute to the formation of pathogenic protein deposits in the brain in patients with some types of dementia. This has been reported area German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn.
Professor Ina Forberg from the University of Bonn said experiments have shown that endogenous retroviruses contribute to the formation of pathogenic deposits of tau protein in nerve cells and influence their spread between neurons. It has been found that these ancient viruses are not the main cause of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, but contribute to their development.
In neurodegenerative diseases, mass death of nerve cells occurs as a result of the accumulation of various forms of “protein residues” in nerve cells. The likelihood of developing such an event increases sharply with age. The scientists concluded that endogenous retroviruses, which integrated into the genome of human ancestors millions of years ago, played an important role in the formation and distribution of such “protein garbage”. The activity of these retroviruses, as a rule, is maximally suppressed by the body, but in some cases, cells begin to read these regions of the genome and produce viral proteins.
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