New research indicates that an infection with the herpes simplex virus type 1 raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The BMJ Open published a study examining the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease development, antiviral therapy, and herpes simplex virus type 1 infection.
An estimated 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and 7.7 million new cases are diagnosed annually. Alzheimer’s disease causes 60% to 80% of dementia cases, and as of 2020, the total cost of treating Alzheimer’s disease was $305 billion.
Infection is one of the many factors that contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is the most researched infectious agent that causes Alzheimer’s disease. HSV-1 primarily causes herpes simplex, characterized by tiny blisters around the mouth.
Researchers in the United States examined the role of HSV-1 in Alzheimer’s disease and the preventive effect of antiviral medications using 344,628 case-control pairs from the US administrative claims data, IQVIA Pharmaetrics Plus, from 2006 to 2021.
According to the study, only 823 (less than 0.25%) of the control group had an HSV-1 infection diagnosis, compared to 1,507 (less than 0.5%) Alzheimer’s patients.
Alzheimer’s patients had an 80% higher overall risk of receiving an HSV-1 diagnosis than the control group, even after controlling for statistical confounding variables.
931 (roughly 40%) of the 2,330 individuals with an HSV-1 infection diagnosis were treated with antiviral medication, and those who did so had a 17% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease than those who did not.
The researchers also examined the impact of other herpesviruses, including cytomegalovirus (CMV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Consequently, the risk of Alzheimer’s disease was linked to both HSV-2 and varicella-zoster virus.
The precise mechanism by which these herpesviruses raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease has not yet been determined, according to the researchers.
They concluded that an HSV-1 infection raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease based on these findings.
