Latest news with #ViroFind
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Northwestern Medicine research finding opens the door to a viral link to Parkinson's disease
A Northwestern Medicine research lab has found a usually harmless virus in brain samples from Parkinson's patients. The idea that Parkinson's could be linked to a virus had been theorized for years, but this is the first study to pinpoint a specific virus as more common in Parkinson's patients. 'The message that we want to give to the general public is, it opens a new field of investigation, something that we didn't know about,' said Dr. Igor Koralnik, Northwestern's chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology and lead author of the study. Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder caused by the loss of neurons that produce dopamine, a chemical messenger in the brain. Why these neurons break down is unknown, but it's thought that this breakdown is caused by many factors, both genetic and environmental. The team used a tool called ViroFind, which is able to test samples for all known viruses that infect humans much quicker than the usual one-at-a-time 'brute force' method. The lab found human pegivirus, or HPgV, in 5 of the 10 Parkinson's-affected brains they tested, and none of the brains without Parkinson's. 'Fifty percent of any population having this virus would be very, very high,' Barbara Hanson, the lab's post-doctoral fellow, said. Estimates calculate HPgV as being present in about 5% of blood donors in North America, and people with healthy immune systems generally lose the virus within two years of exposure. It is not known to cause disease in humans, so most who catch the virus will never know they had it. Before this study, Hanson said, HPgV had not been found in human brain tissue. It was understood to primarily 'live' in blood. 'For this virus to be present in the brain, there must be a reason for that,' Koralnik said. This doesn't mean that the virus itself is a trigger for Parkinson's, though. It could be that an as-yet unidentified genetic mutation that makes people susceptible to Parkinson's, also allows for the virus to spread throughout the body differently than in people without the mutation. And even if further research shows HPgV as a direct cause of Parkinson's, both Koralnik and Dr. Danny Bega, medical director of Northwestern's Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center, said people shouldn't necessarily worry about getting HPgV. A patient likely has to encounter a couple of different factors before they develop Parkinson's, Bega said. He puts it in terms of 'hits' — a hit could be genetic, or it could be environmental, such as exposure to a virus or pesticide. These 'hits' build up over time until there are enough factors to cause the neuron degeneration specific to Parkinson's. It's possible that this is why Parkinson's risk increases with age, Bega said. The longer you live, the more of these 'hits' you take, as you encounter different Parkinson's risk factors throughout your life. 'I always caution people who try to blame their Parkinson's on one thing,' he said. 'Rest assured, it's never one thing that you could have done or should have done differently.' The work to treat and hopefully one day prevent Parkinson's is being done through finding these factors and eliminating them one by one. 'The more targets that we have, the more likely we are to be able to achieve a treatment that actually can slow things down,' Bega said.
New York Post
08-07-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Seemingly harmless, symptomless virus may actually cause Parkinson's disease: study
While some cases of Parkinson's disease are genetic, the vast majority have no known cause. Now, scientists have discovered that a virus that has flown under the radar for years might be a potential contributor to the neurodegenerative disorder. 'We wanted to investigate potential environmental factors – such as viruses – that might contribute to Parkinson's disease,' Igor Koralnik, the lead author of the study and chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine, said in a press release. Advertisement 3 Researchers at Northwestern Medicine have discovered that a virus that has flown under the radar for years might be a potential contributor to the neurodegenerative disorder. Laura Brown 'Using a tool called 'ViroFind', we analyzed post-mortem brain samples from individuals with Parkinson's and from those who died of other causes. We searched for all known human-infecting viruses to identify any differences between the two groups.' What they found was that the Human Pegivirus (HPgV) — a blood-borne, symptomless virus from the same family as hepatitis C — was present in the brains and spinal fluid of 50% of people with Parkinson's but not in those without it. The findings — published Tuesday in the journal JCI Insight — could be a major breakthrough in unlocking some of the factors that lead to this tricky disease and provide new insight into a virus that was previously considered benign. Advertisement 'HPgV is a common, symptomless infection previously not known to frequently infect the brain,' Dr. Koralnik said. 'We were surprised to find it in the brains of Parkinson's patients at such high frequency and not in the controls. Even more unexpected was how the immune system responded differently, depending on a person's genetics.' 'This suggests it could be an environmental factor that interacts with the body in ways we didn't realize before. Advertisement 'For a virus that was thought to be harmless, these findings suggest it may have important effects, in the context of Parkinson's disease. It may influence how Parkinson's develops, especially in people with certain genetic backgrounds.' 3 What they found was that the Human Pegivirus (HPgV) — a blood-borne, symptomless virus from the same family as hepatitis C — was present in the brains and spinal fluid of 50% of people with Parkinson's but not in those without it. C Davids/ – Blood samples from more than 1,000 people enrolled in the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative, a project launched by The Michael J. Fox Foundation, showed that people with HPgV had unique immune system 'signals' — patterns that appeared both in the bloodstream and the brain. Advertisement 'With the blood samples, we observed similar immune-related changes, mirroring those found in the brain,' Dr. Koralnik said. 'People who had the virus showed different signals from the immune system than those who didn't, and this pattern was the same, no matter the genetics. But as we followed each person over time, we saw a more complicated picture.' In people with a Parkinson's-linked mutation in the LRRK2 gene, the immune system reacted to the virus differently than in those without the mutation — suggesting the virus may interact with certain genes to help set the disease in motion. 3 Blood samples from more than 1,000 people enrolled in the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative, a project launched by The Michael J. Fox Foundation. Getty Images 'We plan to look more closely at how genes like LRRK2 affect the body's response to other viral infections to figure out if this is a special effect of HPgV or a broader response to viruses,' added Dr. Koralnik. Now, the team wants to go bigger, examining more brains to determine how often HPgV sneaks past the blood-brain barrier. 'One big question we still need to answer is how often the virus gets into the brains of people with or without Parkinson's,' said Dr. Koralnik. 'We also aim to understand how viruses and genes interact; insights that could reveal how Parkinson's begins and could help guide future therapies.'
