ABSTRACT
With recent findings connecting the Epstein-Barr virus to an increased risk of multiple sclerosis and growing concerns regarding the neurological impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we examined potential links between viral exposures and neurodegenerative disease risk. Using time series data from FinnGen for discovery and cross-sectional data from the UK Biobank for replication, we identified 45 viral exposures significantly associated with increased risk of neurodegenerative disease and replicated 22 of these associations. The largest effect association was between viral encephalitis exposure and Alzheimer's disease. Influenza with pneumonia was significantly associated with five of the six neurodegenerative diseases studied. We also replicated the Epstein-Barr/multiple sclerosis association. Some of these exposures were associated with an increased risk of neurodegeneration up to 15 years after infection. As vaccines are currently available for some of the associated viruses, vaccination may be a way to reduce some risk of neurodegenerative disease.
Subject(s)
Alzheimer Disease , Epstein-Barr Virus Infections , Multiple Sclerosis , Neurodegenerative Diseases , Humans , Neurodegenerative Diseases/epidemiology , Cross-Sectional Studies , Biological Specimen Banks , Herpesvirus 4, Human , Multiple Sclerosis/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Network-based learning enables the identification of possible undiscovered interactions in biological systems. In this issue of Patterns, Du et al. show that applying these methods to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reveals potential infection targets of the virus and possible interactions between SARS-CoV-2 proteins and human proteins.