TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigation of the association between the antibody responses to neurotropic viruses and dementia outcomes in the UK Biobank
AU - Mekli, Krisztina
AU - Lophatananon, Artitaya
AU - Cant, Rachel
AU - Burns, Alistair
AU - Dobson, Curtis B
AU - Itzhaki, Ruth F
AU - Muir, Kenneth R
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The causes that trigger the onset of dementia are still unknown. Recently there has been an increasing interest in the possible role of infectious agents in the brain in the pathogenesis of this condition. Amongst the viruses, members of the Herpesviridae family, namely herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV1), cytomegalovirus (CMV), human herpesvirus-6 (HHV6), human herpesvirus-7 (HHV7) and varicella zoster virus (VZV) have been suggested as potential causes of the disease. However, the relative importance of these and other viruses in contributing to dementia remains unclear. We evaluated the association between seropositivity status of all viruses available in a large, population-based dataset (the UK Biobank) and dementia risk in an unbiased way. Of the 15 viruses investigated, our results showed a statistically significant increase of dementia risk associated only with HSV1 seropositivity (OR 2.14, 95% C.I. 1.21-3.81). However, by combining the data we found that seropositivity for 4 viruses (HSV1, HHV6, HHV7 and VZV) also significantly increases the risk of dementia (OR = 2.37, 95% C.I. 1.43-3.92). These four viruses have been described previously as neurotropic viruses. Our results provide support for a role for neurotropic viruses in the pathology of dementia.
AB - The causes that trigger the onset of dementia are still unknown. Recently there has been an increasing interest in the possible role of infectious agents in the brain in the pathogenesis of this condition. Amongst the viruses, members of the Herpesviridae family, namely herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV1), cytomegalovirus (CMV), human herpesvirus-6 (HHV6), human herpesvirus-7 (HHV7) and varicella zoster virus (VZV) have been suggested as potential causes of the disease. However, the relative importance of these and other viruses in contributing to dementia remains unclear. We evaluated the association between seropositivity status of all viruses available in a large, population-based dataset (the UK Biobank) and dementia risk in an unbiased way. Of the 15 viruses investigated, our results showed a statistically significant increase of dementia risk associated only with HSV1 seropositivity (OR 2.14, 95% C.I. 1.21-3.81). However, by combining the data we found that seropositivity for 4 viruses (HSV1, HHV6, HHV7 and VZV) also significantly increases the risk of dementia (OR = 2.37, 95% C.I. 1.43-3.92). These four viruses have been described previously as neurotropic viruses. Our results provide support for a role for neurotropic viruses in the pathology of dementia.
KW - Antibody Formation
KW - Biological Specimen Banks
KW - Dementia/epidemiology
KW - Herpesvirus 1, Human
KW - Herpesvirus 3, Human
KW - Herpesvirus 6, Human
KW - Herpesvirus 7, Human
KW - Humans
KW - United Kingdom/epidemiology
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0274872
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0274872
M3 - Article
C2 - 36223333
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
SP - e0274872
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 10
ER -