Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
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Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#2"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."
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#3Interesting. Does this mean that a treatment with fungicides may stop/prevent AD onset or progress?
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#4Interesting. Does this mean that a treatment with fungicides may stop/prevent AD onset or progress?
Depends on which way the arrow of causality points. If AD makes the brain vulnerable to fungal infection, probably not. But if fungal infection causes AD, then it seems likely.
This might be a giant breakthrough, or it might be just a side effect. The uncertainty is not fun at all. But if the arrow points the right way, then yes it's possible that antifungals would be a big part of treatment.
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#5Interesting. Does this mean that a treatment with fungicides may stop/prevent AD onset or progress?
Depends on which way the arrow of causality points. If AD makes the brain vulnerable to fungal infection, probably not. But if fungal infection causes AD, then it seems likely. This might be a giant breakthrough, or it might be just a side effect. The uncertainty is not fun at all. But if the arrow points the right way, then yes it's possible that antifungals would be a big part of treatment.
In either case it makes a lot of sense to start dosing patients with anti-fungal medication and see if their symptoms improve. Usually you do not give fungicide to patients because it has a lot of side-effects but those drugs are readily available and easily prescribed.
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on which way the arrow of causality points. If AD makes the brain vulnerable to fungal infection, probably not. But if fungal infection causes AD, then it seems likely. This might be a giant breakthrough, or it might be just a side effect. The uncertainty is not fun at all. But if the arrow points the right way, then yes it's possible that antifungals would be a big part of treatment.
In either case it makes a lot of sense to start dosing patients with anti-fungal medication and see if their symptoms improve. Usually you do not give fungicide to patients because it has a lot of side-effects but those drugs are readily available and easily prescribed.
It's worth a try, especially if they're pretty far advanced.
Doctors have the whole "first do no harm" thing that makes prescribing stuff randomly on hope not really an option. Now if patients start clamoring for it that's another story. But until it's shown that antifungal medicine does more good than harm (who knows, maybe killing all the fungus somehow leaves a void that bacteria could come fill) it's probably best not to do so widely.
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on which way the arrow of causality points. If AD makes the brain vulnerable to fungal infection, probably not. But if fungal infection causes AD, then it seems likely. This might be a giant breakthrough, or it might be just a side effect. The uncertainty is not fun at all. But if the arrow points the right way, then yes it's possible that antifungals would be a big part of treatment.
In either case it makes a lot of sense to start dosing patients with anti-fungal medication and see if their symptoms improve. Usually you do not give fungicide to patients because it has a lot of side-effects but those drugs are readily available and easily prescribed.
Not sure why you got downvoted. It would have to be done in double blind trials vs placebo, but it would be a great way to test the causal link between fungi and symptoms. You'd have to make sure the fungicides cross the blood brain barrier in patients.
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#8Wow sounds like a major breakthrough. How did they not notice this before?
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#9Interesting. Does this mean that a treatment with fungicides may stop/prevent AD onset or progress?
The paper mentions in passing in the discussion section:
"Moreover, antifungal treatment in two patients diagnosed with AD reversed clinical symptoms [51,52]. The interpretation of these results was that perhaps these patients were misdiagnosed."
[51] Ala, T. A., Doss, R. C. & Sullivan, C. J. Reversible dementia: a case of cryptococcal meningitis masquerading as Alzheimer’s disease. J Alzheimers Dis 6, 503–508 (2004).
[52] Hoffmann, M., Muniz, J., Carroll, E. & De Villasante, J. Cryptococcal meningitis misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease: complete neurological and cognitive recovery with treatment. J Alzheimers Dis 16, 517–520 (2009).
Re: Different Brain Regions Are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease
#10Interesting. Does this mean that a treatment with fungicides may stop/prevent AD onset or progress?
I know that toenail and fingernail fungus infections are very common (see, e.g., tons of late-night TV ads). Any chance that those kinds of infection could make their way into the brain?