Athletes experiencing multiple brain injuries now have more to worry about than ever.  Excessive traumas to the brain common in sports like boxing and football, are now being linked to long-term neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and chronic encephalopathy.  Will this discovery persuade sports authorities to implement new rules and equipment to protect players?

Researchers at Tufts University and Oxford University have been studying the effects of excessive brain traumas on latent viruses common in the brain and have discovered the link between the HSV-1 (Herpes Simplex Virus 1) and Alzheimer’s disease.  HSV-1 is present in over 80% of humans and often stays dormant in neurons and glial cells in the brain.

Dana Cairns, a researcher at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University conducted a study on this effect.  By repeatedly mimicking the action of a concussion to brain tissue with HSV-1 present, Cairns revealed that the impact re-activated the virus in the cells, causing signature markers of Alzheimer’s disease including inflammation, dying neurons and gliosis (the proliferation of the glial cells).

Adversely, the same damage was performed on brain cells that did not have HSV-1 infection, and those cells presented no markers of Alzheimer’s disease.

To read more about Cairns’s study, read here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scisignal.ado6430

In the end, understanding the full risk athletes face of long-term neurodegenerative disease may start with understanding the viruses that may be already hiding inside of them.  According to Cairns, treating head injuries with an antiviral medication at the time of the injury could be the first step towards prevention.  And this type of study may also open the doors for further research into the behavior of viruses in the brain when exposed to excessive force and the correlation with neurodegenerative disease.

For More information, please read:

• Repetitive injury induces phenotypes associated with Alzheimer’s disease by reactivating HSV-1 in a human brain tissue model, Science Signaling (2025). DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.ado6430
• Study shows head trauma may activate latent viruses, leading to neurodegeneration

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