Herpes Zoster Vaccination Reduces Risk of Dementia

Abstract

Background/Αim: The relationship of herpes viruses and herpes zoster (HZ) with dementia and Alzheimer's disease is controversial. This study evaluated the relationship between HZ vaccination and cognitive impairment.

Patients and methods: We used data from The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to evaluate the relationship between HZ vaccination and cognitive impairment.

Results: Using BRFSS 2017 data, we assessed HZ vaccination status in 275 subjects whose social activities were hampered by disorientation or memory loss. 61.6% of vaccinated subjects (n=61) and 46.6% of unvaccinated subjects (n=82) never had social activities hampered by disorientation or memory loss. The result is significant (p=0.025, two- sided Fisher exact test). The results of multivariate linear regression analysis, considering social activities hampered by disorientation or memory loss as a dependent variable, and vaccination (yes or no), sex, and education level as independent variables, showed that the effect of vaccination--reducing risk of social activities hampered by disorientation or memory loss--was significant (p=0.03).

Conclusion: Our finding that HZ vaccination reduces the risk of dementia is consistent with the link between viruses and AD. Herpes viruses-induced reactivation of embryologic pathways silenced at birth could be one of the pathologic processes in Alzheimer's disease.

Keywords: Shingles; dementia; herpes zoster; vaccination.

Figure 1. Factors involved in neurodegeneration. GBA, BIN1, APOE, SNCA, and TMEM175 are five genes that have a role in determining whether a person will develop Lewy body dementia (LBD); some of these genes are also linked to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Thus, the pathophysiology and course of AD, LBD, and PD would be different, depending on an individual’s genome. Although AD and PD are molecularly and clinically distinct disorders, their causes appear to underlie LBD. All three conditions lie on a continuum in vulnerable persons.