Infectious Agents and Neurodegenerative Diseases: Exploring the links.

Infectious Agents and Neurodegenerative Diseases: Exploring the links.
Curr Top Med Chem. 2017 Jan 03;
Authors: Alam MZ, Alam Q, Kamal MA, Jiman-Fatani AA, Azhar EI, Khan MA, Haque A
Abstract
Recent studies have shown that bacterial and viral infections are risk factors for various neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Lyme disease (LD). However, it is still controversial how the infections play a role in neurological diseases progression. Infections in central nervous system may lead multiple damages in infected and neighboring cells. The infection leads to the activation of inflammatory processes and host immune responses, which acts as defense mechanism and also causes damage to the host neuronal functions and viability. Several bacterial and viral pathogens have been reported for neurodegeneration, such as the production and deposit of misfolded protein aggregates, oxidative stress, deficient autophagic processes, synaptopathies and neuronal death. These effects may act in combination with other factors, like aging, metabolic diseases and the genetic makeup of the host. We will focus in this review on the possible link between neurodegeneration and infections particularly Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Borrelia burgdorferi, Mycoplasma etc.
PMID: 28049398 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - January 2, 2017 Category: Chemistry Authors: Alam MZ, Alam Q, Kamal MA, Jiman-Fatani AA, Azhar EI, Khan MA, Haque A Tags: Curr Top Med Chem Source Type: research