Results were of cadaver cells in a petri dish, however the damage to neurons was consistent with other Alzheimer's studies. However, this is not to say that if you have HCMV you will get Alzheimer's. More research is needed, but it's a possible marker that vaccines could help to ameliorate Alzheimer's in the general population.

From the study

An alternative is that these mechanisms reflect a viral manipulation of host biology and could thus warrant therapeutic modulation. HCMV IgG seroprevalence is common and varies by age and comorbidity, present in 79% of 85-year-olds

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

I feel like as we keep learning more and more, that a lot of things we catch over our lives really do have longer term bad outcomes. That it happens is nothing new, like chicken pox and shingles, but its probably way worse than we currently know.