DALLAS: New treatments for dementia patients could be a major step nearer after a group of influential scientists identified microbes as a cause.
A paper brings together evidence linking microbes – a virus and two kinds of bacteria – to the development of the illness.
The authors are calling for more research into the area, including clinical trials of antimicrobial drugs as potential Alzheimer’s treatments.
The claims are based on substantial published evidence implicating the microbes – a virus and two specific types of bacteria – in the cause of the degenerative illness.
However scientists say the work has been largely ignored or dismissed as controversial, despite the absence of evidence to the contrary.
It is hoped the findings set out in the paper could also have implications on the future treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other progressive neurological conditions.
Researchers say the opposition to microbe theories is similar to hostility see some years ago against studies which showed viruses cause certain types of cancer and bacterium causes stomach ulcers, which eventually proved to be correct, leading to new treatments.
Scientists also say the research into the microbe cause of Alzheimer’s can no longer be ignored…