( Brain Viral Infection & Its link to memory loss )

Abstract

Neurotropic viruses can cause devastating central nervous system (CNS) infections, especially in young children and the elderly. Infections of the brain are less common than that of other organs, and depend on rare events that allow the virus to penetrate the blood brain barrier Most systemic viruses do not enter the brain. Those that do may take advantage of rare events that include break down of the blood brain barrier, or infection of Trojan horse-like immune cells that are competent to cross the blood brain barrier, but in doing so, subsequently release viruses within the brain. Many recent studies have proven that Viruses can cause neurological problems due to a number of mechanisms including lytic effects on brain cells (cytomegalovirus), induced apoptosis (vesicular stomatitis virus, VSV), or secondary damage due to release of glutamate, DNA, and other inducers of further brain damage. Other viruses such as rabies do not kill neurons, but instead commandeer cellular transcriptional pathways to express viral rather than neuronal genes; this results in neurons that no longer function as neurons