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Hugh Pickens writes:

The Sunday Times reports that scientists have found a virus that appears to infect human brains, reducing people’s thinking power including their spatial awareness and attention span (paywalled). The virus, ATCV-1, seems to alter genes governing brain function. “Unexpectedly, we identified DNA sequences of ATCV-1, an algal virus not previously known to infect humans, in oropharyngeal [throat] samples from healthy adults,” said the researchers. “ATCV-1 was associated with a modest but measurable decrease in cognitive functioning.” By using modern bioinformatics analysis, the genes effected were found to be involved in pathways related to dopamine receptor signaling, cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) signaling, antigen presentation, immune cell adhesion, and eukaryotic initiation factor 2. Note that dopamine is a central component of many psychiatric conditions."

1. "Hugh Pickens" - http://respectponcacity.com/
2. "reducing people’s thinking power including their spatial awareness and attention span" - http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Science/article1481528.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2014_11_08
3. "oropharyngeal" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oropharynx
4. "associated with a modest but measurable decrease in cognitive functioning" - http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/10/23/1418895111.abstract
5. "genes effected were found to be involved in pathways related to dopamine receptor signaling" - http://varuncnmicro.blogspot.com/2014/11/algal-virus-and-cognition-is-there-link.html
6. "dopamine" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine

printed from SoylentNews, Scientists Discover Virus that Makes People Stupid on 2024-04-20 00:28:36