ArticleNature medicine2025
Varicella-zoster virus reactivation and the risk of dementia.
Article in Nature medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 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
25 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
- Sero-epidemiological studies of pathogen burden: A scoping review.Wellcome open research · 2026Pooled it
- Herpes zoster as a vaccine-preventable risk factor increases the risk of dementia: A nested case-control study in Chinese population.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Hospital-treated infection associated with Alzheimer's disease pathology: underlying mechanisms.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Interpreting Viral Associations in Neurodegenerative Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Varicella zoster virus infection.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- The widening medication adherence gap.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Association Between Herpes Zoster Vaccination and Dementia Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Vaccines · 2026Review
- HSV-1 and VZV co-reactivation: implications for worsening neurological and neurodegenerative diseases.Journal of neurovirology · 2026Review
- Varicella zoster virus and the central nervous system.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Prevention of neuroinfectious-diseases: high impact of vaccination programs - but the potential is not maxed out yet.Neurological research and practice · 2026Review
- LAPF enhances lysosomal acidification to promote TLR9 and cGAS-STING-mediated antiviral immunity and attenuate HSV-1-induced neuroinflammatory pain.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- Reduced risk of dementia with recombinant zoster vaccine in US adults age 65 or older.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Global vaccine development.Nature medicine · 2026Review
- Neuroinflammation as a result of non-neurotropic herpesvirus infection.Immunology and cell biology · 2026Review
- Can we refute a role for infections in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis?Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- The dysregulation of innate immunity by Porphyromonas gingivalis in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease.Journal of internal medicine · 2026Review
- Impact of Vaccines Across the Lifespan: A New Perspective in Public Health-Conclusions of an Expert Panel-Part 1.Vaccines · 2026Review
- Antigen-specific TScience advances · 2026Article
- Herpes zoster vaccination and incident dementia in Canada: an analysis of natural experiments.The Lancet. Neurology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a neurotropic virus that establishes lifelong latency in humans. VZV reactivation is associated with a wide range of symptoms, including herpes zoster (HZ; also known as shingles), and has been implicated in the development of dementia, although to an unknown extent. Here we present a large-scale longitudinal analysis of health records from more than 100 million individuals in the United States that demonstrates a consistent relationship of VZV reactivation with dementia after controlling for nearly 400 measured characteristics (covering demographics, socioeconomic factors, comorbidities, medications, proxies for healthcare-seeking behavior, shifts in clinical guidelines and completeness of records). We found that recurrent HZ was associated with an increased risk of dementia compared to a single HZ episode. Additionally, exposure to HZ vaccines was associated with a reduced risk of dementia compared to the control 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. Furthermore, the reduced risk of dementia after administration of the live-attenuated zoster vaccine waned over time and was highly correlated with a waning of the vaccine-mediated protection against HZ. The dementia risk reduction at 3 and 5 years postexposure was also stronger in individuals who received multiple as opposed to only one dose of the recombinant HZ vaccine and those at greater risk of HZ. Our findings strongly implicate VZV reactivation as a modifiable risk factor for dementia.
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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.