Common adult vaccines may help protect from Alzheimer's, study shows

21 August 2023 , 21:59

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A series of common adult vaccinations have been linked to lower risk of developing Alzheimer's (Image: Getty Images)

A selection of common adult vaccines, including shingles and pneumonia, could help older people fend off Alzheimer's disease, according to new research.

Those who have previously had a shingles vaccine, pneumococcus vaccine, or the tetanus or diphtheria jab, with or without an added pertussis vaccine, had a 25-30 per cent lower chance of developing Alzheimer's. The research was carried out by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

The latest study follows on from research published last year where it was found that adults who had received at least one flu vaccine were 40 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer's than their unvaccinated peers. Senior author Dr Paul Shulz, a neurology professor with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston said: "We were wondering whether the influenza finding was specific to the flu vaccine. This data revealed that several additional adult vaccines were also associated with a reduction in the risk of Alzheimer's."

Researchers looked at the files of more than a million patients (Getty Images/Image Source)

Speaking in a University of Texas press release, Dr Shulz added: "We and others hypothesize that the immune system is responsible for causing brain cell dysfunction in Alzheimer's. The findings suggest to us that vaccination is having a more general effect on the immune system that is reducing the risk for developing Alzheimer's."

Researchers looked into the medical records of 1.6 million patients who did or did not receive routine vaccinations recommended in adulthood as part of the study. Patients were free from dementia during a two-year period previously and were at least 65 years old by the start of the eight-year follow-up period.

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As we live longer, countries around the world are battling increased rates of Alzheimer's (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

People who had received the vaccines for tetanus and diphtheria were 30 per cent less likely than their unvaccinated counterparts to develop Alzheimer's disease, the research found. Around 7 per cent of vaccinated patients developed Alzheimer's compared to 10 per cent of unvaccinated patients.

When it came to the shingles vaccine, researchers found a 25 per cent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease - 8 per cent of vaccinated patients developed the disease versus 11 per cent of unvaccinated patients. The pneumococcal vaccine was associated with a 27 per cent decreased risk of developing Alzheimer's with 8 per cent of vaccinated patients developing dementia compared to 11 per cent of those unvaccinated.

The study's team also noted that three new anti-amyloid antibodies used to treat Alzheimer's slowed the progression of the disease by 25 per cent, 27 per cent and 35 per cent. Study author Dr Avram Bukhbinder, a recent medical school alumnus now at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said: "We hypothesise that the reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease associated with vaccines is likely due to a combination of mechanisms.

"Vaccines may change how the immune system responds to the build-up of toxic proteins that contribute to Alzheimer's disease, such as by enhancing the efficiency of immune cells at clearing the toxic proteins or by 'honing' the immune response to these proteins so that 'collateral damage' to nearby healthy brain cells is decreased. Of course, these vaccines protect against infections like shingles, which can contribute to neuroinflammation."

Fiona Leishman