ArticleNature medicine2024
The recombinant shingles vaccine is associated with lower risk of dementia.
Article in Nature medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
86 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Efficacy and Effectiveness of the Recombinant Zoster Vaccine Against Herpes Zoster, Herpes Zoster Ophthalmicus, Postherpetic Neuralgia and Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Reviews in medical virology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of herpes zoster infection, antivirals and vaccination on risk of developing dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Pooled it
- Immunofitness in the elderly: The role of vaccination in promoting healthy aging.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Review
- Herpes zoster hospitalization burden in Spain during the initial period of recombinant zoster vaccine implementation.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Severe infections, domain-specific cognitive vulnerability, and future infection risk in older adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Cytomegalovirus-induced T cell responses accelerate Alzheimer's disease progression in mice.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Cross-tissue immune profiling of APOE ε4 reveals early dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Public Attitudes About Preventive Dementia Vaccine Among US Adults.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Recombinant shingles vaccination and the risk of cardiovascular events.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Delayed Pathogenicity inMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Association Between Herpes Zoster Vaccination and Dementia Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Vaccines · 2026Review
- Why large-scale randomized trials of live-attenuated shingles vaccination for dementia prevention are urgently needed.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Potential preventive role of low-dose methotrexate against incident recorded psychosis: a retrospective cohort study based on electronic health records.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunotherapy reprograms CNS immunity and alters Alzheimer's biomarkers: results from two open-label clinical trials.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- The emerging link between shingles vaccination and reduced Alzheimer's risk: a public health signal for viral-dementia pathways.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Article
- Microglia in systemic neuroimmune communication: functions beyond phagocytosis.Trends in immunology · 2026Review
- Varicella zoster virus and the central nervous system.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- The skin as a sentinel organ for neurodegeneration: An underrecognized target for dementia prevention.Intractable & rare diseases research · 2026Review
- Microglial MARCO facilitates Varicella zoster virus uptake and triggers TLR2-mediated neuroinflammation.Journal of biomedical science · 2026Article
26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There is emerging evidence that the live herpes zoster (shingles) vaccine might protect against dementia. However, the existing data are limited and refer only to the live vaccine, which is now discontinued in the United States and many other countries in favor of a recombinant vaccine. Whether the recombinant shingles vaccine protects against dementia remains unknown. Here we used a natural experiment opportunity created by the rapid transition from the use of live to the use of recombinant vaccines to compare the risk of dementia between vaccine types. We show that the recombinant vaccine is associated with a significantly lower risk of dementia in the 6 years post-vaccination. Specifically, receiving the recombinant vaccine is associated with a 17% increase in diagnosis-free time, translating into 164 additional days lived without a diagnosis of dementia in those subsequently affected. The recombinant shingles vaccine was also associated with lower risks of dementia than were two other vaccines commonly used in older people: influenza and tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis vaccines. The effect was robust across multiple secondary analyses, and was present in both men and women but was greater in women. These findings should stimulate studies investigating the mechanisms underpinning the protection and could facilitate the design of a large-scale randomized control trial to confirm the possible additional benefit of the recombinant shingles vaccine.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.