Cold sore treatment could cut risk of Alzheimer's
Treating cold sores with anti-viral medicines could reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, new research has suggested.
The virus responsible for cold sores, the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), can lie dormant in human cells for a lifetime before 're-awakening' and causing dementia symptoms, previous studies have found.
It can cause changes to the brain that resemble those of dementia patients, including amyloid plaque-like formulations and inflammation.
However, a new study of around 700,000 adults aged over 50 has found that treating these cold sores with anti-viral medication could reduce the chance of the disease developing.
Researchers, including some from pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences and the University of Washington in Seattle, used data on 344,628 people diagnosed with Alzheimer's between 2006 and 2021 and compared them to the same number of people without the disease.
A history of HSV-1 diagnosis was noted for 1,507 (0.44 per cent) patients with Alzheimer's, compared with 823 (0.24 per cent) of those without.
Nearly two thirds of those with Alzheimer's disease were women, with an average age of 73.
A greater risk of Alzheimer's
The study found that people who had contracted the herpes virus had an 80 per cent greater risk of Alzheimer's, even when other factors were taken into account.
But those with HSV-1 who used anti-viral medication to treat the virus were 17 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer's, compared with those who did not use these medicines.
Among the 2,330 people with a history of HSV-1 infection, 931 used anti-virals after their diagnosis.
The authors, writing in the journal BMJ Open, concluded that the findings 'implicate HSV-1 in the development of Alzheimer's disease and highlight anti-herpetic therapies as potentially protective for Alzheimer's and related dementia'.
In the UK, the drug aciclovir is one of those available for treating cold sores, chickenpox, shingles and other herpes virus infections.
The researchers also looked at the potential role of other herpes viruses, including HSV-2, varicella zoster virus (which causes chickenpox), and cytomegalovirus.
Both HSV-2 and varicella zoster virus infections were also associated with a heightened risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Exactly how HSV-1 and other viruses might heighten the risk of dementia is not clear, but they suggested that 'studies have shown that inflammatory alterations in the brain caused by HSV infection are pivotal in [Alzheimer's disease] development'.
HSV-1 DNA is also found in the plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, and people carrying the most common genetic risk factor for the disease are more susceptible to HSV infections, they added.
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