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>just because herpes viruses happen to infect neurons and cause inflammation doesn't imply a causal relationship with neural degeneration Herpesviruses infect

>just because herpes viruses happen to infect neurons and cause inflammation doesn't imply a causal relationship with neural degeneration Herpesviruses infect neurons and cause lifelong infections by changing the expression of a variety of proteins in infected cells, thereby evading detection by the immune system. I don’t think we should brush off the possibility of such an infection having long-term neurodegenerative effects (most likely combined with other necessary factors).

timr 4y ago
> Herpesviruses infect neurons and cause lifelong infections No, you're abusing terminology to exaggerate. Herpes viruses establish dormancy, which is not the same thing as an active infection. Are the viruses in the cells, somewhere, in low numbers? We don't actually know (your claim about protein expression change and hiding from the immune system is a hypothesis, not a fact). We know that viruses in the family go dormant -- stop causing visible symptoms -- and periodically recur. There's a huge leap from that to "causes long-term neural cell death and disability". > I don’t think we should brush off the possibility of such an infection having long-term neurodegenerative effects (most likely combined with other necessary factors). I'm not saying we should "brush off the possibility". I'm saying that it's a hypothesis, and it needs to be shown to be true before insinuating that it is a known fact.