A common lung bacterium turns up in the eyes and brains of people with Alzheimer's — a new thread to pull

A bacterium best known for causing lung infections, Chlamydia pneumoniae, has been found in higher amounts in the eyes and brains of people with Alzheimer's disease than in people without it, in a Cedars-Sinai study of donated tissue from more than 100 people, published in Nature Communications. Higher amounts were linked to more severe illness, poorer thinking ability, and the APOE4 gene version that raises Alzheimer's risk. The researchers stress what this does not mean: it does not prove the bacterium causes Alzheimer's, and there is no eye test for it yet. What it does give science is a new, checkable thread connecting infection and inflammation to the disease — in a field where every solid lead matters.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation