Cytomegalovirus infection and Alzheimer's disease.
Serum antibody titres to cytomegalovirus (CMV) were measured in 113 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 39 non-demented controls suffering from chronic functional psychoses. AD patients and controls had similar CMV antibody titres, and conventional CMV activity was not detected in post-mortem samples from eight AD patients. It is therefore unlikely that the CMV play any causal role in most cases of AD. The possession of the histocompatibility antigen HLA-B15 was significantly correlated with raised levels of CMV antibody in the AD patients, which suggests that HLA-B15 may be associated with an enhanced immune response to CMV.
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000276:immunology*; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D059910:HLA-B15 Antigen; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D006680:HLA Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D059910:HLA-B15 Antigen