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bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.04.29.721769

Resolving human neuronal herpesvirus reactivation via petabase-scale association studies

Gutierrez, J. C.·Chen, Y.·Babaian, A.·Dhindsa, R. S.·Lareau, C. A.
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Abstract

Mounting evidence implicates herpesvirus reactivation in the etiology of Alzheimers disease, yet we lack a refined molecular characterization of pathogenesis in neurodegeneration. Here, we mine over 10 petabytes of human sequencing data for viral transcripts, identifying recurrent herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) reactivation in healthy but not pathological post-mortem human brain tissue. Integrative single-nucleus analyses resolve direct evidence of HSV-1 expression in RORB+ glutamatergic neurons, implicating viral reactivation in a neuronal population progressively lost during dementia.

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Gutierrez, J. C., Chen, Y., Babaian, A., Dhindsa, R. S., Lareau, C. A.. 2026-05-01. Resolving human neuronal herpesvirus reactivation via petabase-scale association studies. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.29.721769

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