TREM2 Protects the Brain From Herpes The Virus Fights Back alzforum.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from alzforum.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
28 Feb 2021
Epidemiological evidence of herpes involvement in dementia continues to accrue. The latest finding comes from a Swedish cohort of 530,000 people, all over 50 years old. In the February 14 Alzheimer’s & Dementia, researchers led by Hugo Lövheim, Umeå University, reported that untreated herpes infection upped long-term dementia risk 1.5-fold, and antiviral treatment lowered risk by 11 percent. This is consistent with previous findings in Asian and European cohorts.
Whether herpes virus infection can contribute to AD has been hotly contested. Nationwide epidemiological studies have been gaining steam in the past few years, offering real-world evidence of a potential link. In Taiwan, people with severe herpes or shingles had a 2.5-3 times higher risk of dementia; antiviral treatment substantially reduced risk (Tsai et al., 2017; Chen et al., 2018; Tzeng et al., 2018). In South Korea, a shingles diagnosis came with a 12 percent higher risk of dementia; antivirals reduced