Here are five observations:
1. Dr. Nath and his team studied ALS patients to find any virus commonalities.
2. They found HERV-K retrovirus, detected in cortical and spinal neurons, to be heightened in patients with ALS as opposed to those patients without ALS.
3. HERV-K embedded itself into human DNA 2 to 5 million years ago, and then was passed from generation to the next. This retrovirus is suspected of killing nerve cells, and causing certain diseases, like ALS.
4. To test the theory, the researchers placed the virus’ genes in mice, which then contracted a disease similar to ALS.
5. HIV may be caused by a similar retrovirus, so Dr. Nath plans to give ALS patients HIV drugs to test if they subdue HERV-K.
6. If successful, the next step would involve developing a HERV-K drug. However, HERV-K most likely won’t be completely erased from the genome due to its extensive lifespan in the human body.
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