CMV as a factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease?

Abstract

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has been associated with poorer cognitive abilities, and there has recently been an association of T cell receptor alpha (TRA) complementarity determining region-3 (CDR3)-Tau chemical complementarity with increasing tauopathy in Alzheimer’s disease cases. We thus considered the hypothesis that there are Tau peptides homologous to CMV proteome peptides and that the Tau-homologous, CMV peptides would have greater affinity for TRA CDR3s in cases of greater tauopathy, as represented by Braak scores. Results facilitated by the use of the adaptive match web tool to assess the hydrophobic, chemical complementarity scores for TRA CDR3s and Tau homologous, CMV peptides, were indeed consistent with that hypothesis. Overall, the proposal and assessment in this report supports further investigation, with more sophisticated approaches, into the possibility that an immune response against CMV augments the development of Alzheimer’s disease.