Can phages cause Alzheimer’s disease?

SummaryAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with progressive dementia. Multiple processes have been implicated in AD, notably including abnormal β-amyloid production, tau hyperphosphorylation and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), synaptic pathology, oxidative stress, inflammation, protein processing or misfolding, calcium dyshomeostasis, aberrant reentry of neurons into the cell cycle, cholesterol synthesis, and effects of hormones or growth factors. The complexity of the disease, which affects numerous molecules, cells, and systems and impedes attempts to determine which alterations are specifically associated with early pathology. Chlamydia pneumoniae is an obligate intracellular bacterium. Infection with this organism has been suggested to be a risk factor for AD. C. pneumoniae has two phages phiCPAR39 and phage related to phiCPG1. Hypothesis: we propose that these two phages by entering into mitochondria of chlamydia’s host cell can work as slow viruses and can initiate AD.