Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease that is the fifth leading cause of death in the world. Now, new research that was just published in the Sciences Advances journal is suggesting that poor dental hygiene could play a role in causing Alzheimer’s.

The experts behind the research found that people with Alzheimer’s disease had higher concentrations of proteins produced by Porphyromonas gingivalis, a bacteria that causes chronic gum disease, in their brains. When studying mice, the researchers found that those infected with P. gingivalis showed symptoms of early-stage dementia, and had more inflammation, neural damage, and amyloid plaques in their brains.

In addition, researchers found that two toxic proteins P. gingivalis uses to damage human tissue were found in 91% and 96% of the brains with Alzheimer’s sampled, compared to 39% and 52% of brains without. They concluded that the concentration of the proteins was “significantly higher” in brain samples from people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Sim Singhrao, from the University of Central Lancashire, explained that this is the first time research has shown how these enzymes can kill neurons and cause dementia. The pharmaceutical firm Cortexyme has since developed a drug that could clear this bacterial infection and stop brain deterioration, and it is currently in clinical trials.

“This provides hope of treating or preventing Alzheimer’s disease one day,” Singhrao said.

While it’s very exciting that a cure for Alzheimer’s might be on the horizon, Alzheimer’s UK stressed that there is “not enough evidence to know whether treating infections would be a good strategy to treat Alzheimer’s or to reduce the risk of the condition.”

Thankfully, a team in Melbourne are developing a vaccine for P. gingivalis.

“A vaccine for gum disease would be welcome — but if it also stops Alzheimer’s the impact could be enormous,” the research stated.

“The interesting thing about this study is that it suggests that real-life factors such as sleep might affect how fast the disease spreads through the brain,” said David Holtzman, the lead author of the study. “We’ve known that sleep problems and Alzheimer’s are associated in part via a different Alzheimer’s protein — amyloid beta — but this study shows that sleep disruption causes the damaging protein tau to increase rapidly and to spread over time.”

We can only hope that this new research will indeed lead to a cure for Alzheimer’s disease!