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Resolving human neuronal herpesvirus reactivation via petabase-scale association studies

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: Mounting evidence implicates herpesvirus reactivation in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease, yet we lack a refined molecular characterization of pathogenesis in neurodegeneration. Here, we mine over 10 petabytes of human sequencing data for viral transcripts, identifying recurrent herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) reactivation in healthy but not pathological post-mortem human brain tissue. Integrative single-nucleus analyses resolve direct evidence of HSV-1 expression in RORB+ glutamatergic neurons, implicating viral reactivation in a neuronal population progressively lost during dementia.

Source: bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Authors: Jacob C. Gutierrez, Yifan Chen, Artem Babaian, Ryan S. Dhindsa, Caleb A. Lareau

Institutions: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, University of Toronto

Language: English

Topic: Alzheimer's disease research and treatments

Subfield: Physiology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7160086837

Cites: 32

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