Alzheimer’s enigma begins to decipher, little by little. Doctors and patients have received with the same doses of hope and caution the news … that one of the vaccines against Herpes Zóster confers, so it seems, some protection against the most common dementia. Both consider that the recent study that points in that direction is “robust” enough to be optimistic. There are, as they argue, “founded reasons” that justify the illusion he has aroused. But it is only the beginning. The published work, as their own authors recognize, still needs new essays so that the scientific evidence they have reached becomes full conviction.
The World War Panorama against Alzheimer’s has changed radically in recent months. Of the desperate desert that was for scientists and relatives of affected the finding of a century without hardly news has been available to the first drugs and perhaps – there is a consistent evidence of it – a vaccine. The greatest top that can be achieved in medicine is the achievement of a vaccine.
The design of any immunization requires, as a previous step, the determination of the cause caused by the disease. The origin of Alzheimer’s has been, until today, a perfect stranger, although the hieroglyph that encloses the most common of dementias begins to decipher. The Herpes Zóster virus could be one of its sources, although surely not the only one, according to the neurologist Pascual Sánchez, secretary of the Behavior and Dementia Study group of the Spanish Society of Neurology (Sen).
Caution message
“We talk about a very complex disease and manifests with various symptoms,” says the specialist. The accumulation of the Tau protein, lists, causes neuronal and beta-amyloid balls, the plates that, among other symptoms, define it. “It is very possible that it is several viruses that generate all these and other disorders,” he warns.
Neither doctors nor patients believe the time to throw the bells on the flight. The word is caution. 2025 could be baptized as the year of Alzheimer’s because to the recent appearance of the first drugs, limited but effective, the real possibility of a vaccine with a relative efficacy of 20%is now added, something else in women. It is little, but it is a beginning.
“If an trial determined that a vaccine protects from Alzheimer’s, even if it were only 5%, I would not hesitate to put it on”
Pascual Sánchez
Neurologist, SEN behavior and dementia study group
“You have to keep in mind that adults who vaccinate are usually those who lead a healthier lifestyle”
Ana Pilar Javierre
family Medical, SemFyC Infectious Diseases Prevention Group
«In the hypothetical case that it works, this vaccine will not be the solution. We will most likely need several vaccines, which will be designed as we determine the different causes of the disease, ”values the SEN expert. “Now, if the trial determines that, indeed this formulation works, even if it were 5%, I, just in case, would put it.”
The idea that Herpes Zóster virus could be related to Alzheimer’s virus is not new. Some Spanish research groups include among the former who talked about it a little over 20 years ago. For many specialists that approach, seen in different studies, was pueril. A virus like the ‘coach’ dementia generator? Time seems to give them the reason.
second Diana
A group from Stanford university (USA) has demonstrated, almost by chance, that herpes vaccinated people are protected by 20% against Alzheimer’s. The same team recognizes that the finding must be corroborated by a new essay with people, which should be followed for several years to verify validity. It is fair that another previous work, also published this year, had reached the same conclusion and proven some somewhat greater efficacy, of 32%.
Are we facing something big? “With this type of findings, family doctors prefer to be the penultimate more than the last to avoid more symptoms to our patients,” says a spokesman for Osatzen, the Basque Network of Primary Care specialists.
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The herpes zoster vaccine
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In Euskadi it is administered The Shingrix formula contains, such as that of Stanford’s trial, attenuated parts (without the ability to cause disease) of the varicella-zoster virus, along with an adjuvant so that the protection is higher and durable.
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Indication: For people with risk conditions that entail immunodeficiency from the age of 18 and in over 50, according to their technical file.
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Osakidetza of Cobertra: For over 65 years and patients with immunodeficiency complications (transplanted, oncological, HIV, with a history of two or more episodes of Herpes Zóster and treatment with immunomodulating or immunosuppressive drugs). The criteria are the same in all communities
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DOSING GUIDE: The two dose vaccine that must be put with a minimum interval of two months between the administration of the first and the second.
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It is sold in pharmacies with medical recipe. The two doses come at a price around 435 euros
There is no institution or organization that dares to confirm whether the finding of Stanford University has generated a greater demand for the Herpes Zóster vaccine. “In the midst of a campaign for vaccination, it is very difficult to establish why a peak of applications is due,” reasons the technical director of the Bizkaia Pharmaceutical College, Juan del Arco.
Demand is maintained
In the same line, the Health Department of the Basque Government is pronounced. There has not been an increase in demand in recent months, according to confirms, but “in any case, it would be difficult to attribute it to this cause.”
The spokeswoman for the Spanish Society of Family Physicians and Community Medicine, Ana Pilar Javierre, a member of the SEMFYC infectious disease prevention group, also does not hide her satisfaction with the finding, but adds a reflection to the news. “We must bear in mind that adults who vaccinate are usually those who lead a healthier lifestyle, which contributes to develop less diseases in general.”
Patients do not hide their satisfaction either. The Alzheimer Spain Foundation is hopeful, but in line with what science expresses, it believes that time is still missing. Every time it seems that less
Prudence among specialists
None of the specialists consulted for this report would recommend to their patients, today, to be vaccinated against the Herpes Zóster to protect against the Alzheimer’s. The investigations that give this formulation some protection against dementia point in a direction that seems good. They are a good indicator, possibly the best, but – they insist – we still lack data.
One of the main ones is that two vaccines against the Herpes Zóster exist on the market. The one used in the American university essay is made of attenuated viruses and seems to work in part against this dementia. But, “will the same effect achieve the one that is manufactured from a recombinant protein?” Reflects the neurologist of Sen Pascual Sánchez. The answer to your question is overwhelming. “It is not known, because it has not been tested,” he answers.
Nor is it known how the medicine would work if an essay was performed with risk patients or people without him who tried it double blind. That is, half of the volunteers with the existing preparation and the other with a placebo. Nor is it known in this case because it has not been done either. “What we must do is recommend to our elders to vaccute what the health authorities recommend,” insists the family doctor Ana Pilar Javierre. «Among the elderly, optimal vaccination coverage figures are not reached. The additional benefits of herpes zoster vaccines are very interesting, but not the priority, ”he emphasizes.
