The human genome is composed of viral DNA: Viral homologues of the protein products cause Alzheimer's disease and others via autoimmune mechanisms.

The human genome is composed of millions of fragmented contiguous viral DNA sequences, dating from the dawn of evolution and reflecting retroviral insertions over millions of years of coexistence. Herpes and other viral insertion points correspond to the locations of over 120 Alzheimer's disease susceptibility genes and to linkage hotspots. The greater the number of pathogen matches, the more important the gene. These DNA sequences are translated into short contiguous 5-12 amino acid stretches (vatches), identical in viruses and man, and in other pathogens implicated in Alzheimer's disease (Borrelia, Chlamydia, Helicobacter, C. Neoformans , P. Gingivalis). C. Neoformans, which has been associated with a rare but curable form of dementia, expresses the most number of hits to Alzheimer's disease proteins. Vatches are often immunogenic and antibodies to viral proteins may knock down their human counterparts or activate immune responses killing the cells containing their human homologues. This is supported by the presence of the complement membrane attack complex in Alzheimer's disease neurones and by the ability of tau antigens (homologous to pathogen proteins) to promote the formation of neurofibrillary tangles and Alzheimer's disease pathology in mice. Vatches may act as dummy ligands or decoy receptors and interfere with the interactome of their human counterparts. Alzheimer's disease is thus a "pathogenetic" disorder caused by pathogens but dependent on the genes that create these matching sequences. This scenario is relevant to many other, and perhaps most human disorders, given the massive genomic extent of viral coverage. The vatches in the human proteome, dictated by polymorphisms and mutations, may predict, from birth, the spectrum of pathogens that match our proteins and which pathogenetic disease we are likely to develop. These may all be preventable by vaccination, pathogen detection and elimination and curable by immunosuppressant approaches, perhaps with a unique, safe, and effective immunosuppressant panacea.