Brain fungus could cause the onset of Alzheimer’s, new study finds

There’s probably a fungus living in your brain right now.

And it could be contributing to the development of Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia, according to new medical research.

The fungus is Candida albicans, an ordinary yeast that lives on every human body, especially on your skin, in your mouth and your intestines.

Only when C. albicans grows out of balance with the healthy bacteria in your body does it cause an infection called candidiasis. Common infections include vaginal yeast infection, diaper rash and thrush, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Now, researchers at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, have found that not only does C. albicans enter the brain, it also produces toxic compounds called peptides, which are often associated with Alzheimer’s.

“Our lab has years of experience studying fungi, so we embarked on the study of the connection between C. albicans and Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. David B. Corry, professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a news release.

“Our first question was, how does C. albicans enter the brain?,” said Yifan Wu, postdoctoral scientist at Baylor and first author of the study, published in the journal Cell Reports.

“We found that C. albicans produces enzymes called secreted aspartic proteases … that break down the blood-brain barrier, giving the fungus access to the brain, where it causes damage,” Wu added.

It’s currently believed that Alzheimer’s disease results from the accumulation of toxic peptides in the brain, which leads to neurodegeneration. The dominant thinking is that these peptides are naturally produced by the brain.

These peptides also activate brain cells that keep the amount of fungus in the brain at low levels — but they don’t completely clear the fungal infection.

The new research, however, reveals that C. albicans, which had previously been detected in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, can generate the same harmful peptides that the brain can also create.

“This work potentially contributes an important new piece of the puzzle regarding the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” Corry said.

“These findings … support conducting further studies to evaluate the role of C. albicans in the development of Alzheimer’s disease in people, which can potentially lead to innovative therapeutic strategies,” Corry added.