On Jan. 7, 2025, researchers at Tufts University and Oxford University announced they have uncovered mechanisms connecting trauma events and the emergence of disease. Concussions and repetitive head trauma in sports like football and boxing, once accepted as an unpleasant consequence of intense athletic competition, are now recognized as serious health threats.

They point to latent viruses lurking in most of our brains that may be activated by the jolt, leading to inflammation and accumulating damage that can occur over the ensuing months and years. The results suggest the use of antiviral drugs as potential early preventive treatments post-head injury.

The microbiome—which includes many hundreds of bacterial species that inhabit our bodies—provides aid in digestion, immune system development, and protection against harmful pathogens. But the microbiome also includes dozens of viruses that swarm within our bodies at any given time. Some of these can be potentially harmful, but simply lie dormant within our cells. Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), found in over 80% of people, and varicella-zoster virus, found in 95% of people, are known to make their way into the brain and sleep within our neurons and glial cells.

In the current study, the researchers used a lab model that reconstructs the environment of the brain to better understand how concussions may set off the first stages of virus reactivation and neurodegeneration. The findings are published in a study in Science Signaling.