Antiviral treatment associated with reduced risk of clinical Alzheimer's disease-A nested case-control study
Eva-Stina Hemmingsson1, Ellen Hjelmare1, Bodil Weidung1,2
1Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation Geriatric Medicine, Umeå University Umeå Sweden.
Introduction:
In this nested case-control study, we investigated if antiviral treatment given prior to onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD) could influence incident AD.
Methods:
From a large population-based cohort study in northern Sweden, 262 individuals that later developed AD were compared to a non-AD matched control group with respect to prescriptions of herpes antiviral treatment. All included subjects were herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) carriers and the matching criteria were age, sex, apolipoprotein E genotype (ε4 allele carriership), and study sample start year.
Results:
Among those who developed AD, 6 prescriptions of antivirals were found, compared to 20 among matched controls. Adjusted for length of follow-up, a conditional logistic regression indicated a difference in the risk for AD development between groups (odds ratio for AD with an antiviral prescription 0.287, P = .018).
Discussion:
Antiviral treatment might possibly reduce the risk for later development of HSV1-associated AD.
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