A gesture as common as nose picking could pose a risk to mental health because a study has found that doing so can introduce a bacterium, Chlamydia pneumoniae, which has the ability to travel through the olfactory nerve in the nose to the brain of mice, where it has created markers related to Alzheimer’s disease.
The research has been published in Scientific Reports and has been carried out by scientists from Griffith University, who discovered that Chlamydia pneumoniae contracted the nerve that lies between the nasal cavity and the brain, using it as a pathway to invade the central nervous system. . The brain cells’ response was to deposit amyloid beta protein, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.
“We are the first to show that Chlamydia pneumoniae can travel directly up the nose and into the brain, where it can trigger pathologies resembling Alzheimer’s disease,” said Professor James St. John, Director of the Clem Jones Center for Neurobiology. and Stem Cell Research. “We saw this happen in a mouse model, and the evidence is potentially frightening for humans as well.”
Removing nose hairs is not a good idea
Viruses and bacteria find it easy to reach the brain through the olfactory nerve because it is exposed to air and through it they bypass the blood-brain barrier and can enter the brain. Professor St. John has suggested that the inner lining of the nose needs to be protected to reduce the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and that “nose picking and nose hair picking is not a good idea”. , since “we don’t want to damage the inside of our nose and pinching and waxing can do it.”
“We are the first to show that Chlamydia pneumoniae can travel directly up the nose and into the brain, where it can trigger pathologies resembling Alzheimer’s disease.”
The team of researchers is organizing the next phase of research, with the aim of determining if what they have found in mice is also produced in humans. “We need to do this study in humans and confirm if the same pathway works in the same way. It is research that has been proposed by many people, but has not yet been completed. What we do know is that these same bacteria are present in humans, but we haven’t figured out how they get there.”
According to Professor St. John, smell tests may also have potential as detectors of Alzheimer’s and dementia, since the loss of the sense of smell is an early indicator of Alzheimer’s, so he suggests that testing people with smell from the age of 60 it could be useful for early detection of this type of dementia.
“Once you are over 65, your risk factor increases, but we are also looking at other causes, because it is not just age, it is also environmental exposure. And we think bacteria and viruses are critical.”
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