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Alzheimer’s disease, long seen as a disorder of the aging brain, may actually begin in an unexpected place: the mouth.Researchers reported evidence that a bacterium commonly associated with chronic gum disease could play a direct role in the development of Alzheimer’s. The study, published in Science Advances, details how Porphyromonas gingivalis, the pathogen behind periodontitis, was detected in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The findings come from an international team of scientists that included Jan Potempa, a microbiologist at the University of Louisville. Potempa said the research offers some of the strongest evidence yet linking gum infection to Alzheimer’s pathology,...

If you bled when you brushed your teeth this morning, you might want to get that seen to. We may finally have found the long-elusive cause of Alzheimer’s disease: Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in chronic gum disease. That’s bad, as gum disease affects around a third of all people. But the good news is that a drug that blocks the main toxins of P. gingivalis is entering major clinical trials this year, and research published today shows it might stop and even reverse Alzheimer’s. There could even be a vaccine. ....

Sci. Signal., 16 February 2010 Vol. 3, Issue 109, p. pc4 [DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.3109pc4] PODCASTS Science Signaling Podcast: 16 February 2010 George Hajishengallis1, 2 and Annalisa M. VanHook3 1 University of Louisville School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.2 University of Louisville School of Dentistry, Oral Health and Systemic Disease, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.3 Associate Online Editor of Science Signaling, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20005, USA. Abstract: This is a conversation with George Hajishengallis about a Research Article published in the 16 February 2010 issue of...