Speculations on the role of transmissible agents in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease

Unconventional agents and conventional viruses provide model systems to investigate the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The essay which follows examines the hypothetical role of herpes simplex in AD and presents some generally applicable experimental approaches to detecting genes in brain tissues. The concluding section, on parallels between AD and diseases of the brain caused by unconventional viruses, defines strategies for isolating genes related to pathology.