Lower risk of dementia with AS01-adjuvanted vaccination against shingles and respiratory syncytial virus infections, 2025, Taquet et al.

[Chandelier]

Authors:

• Maxime Taquet
• John A. Todd
• Paul J. Harrison

Abstract​

AS01-adjuvanted shingles (herpes zoster) vaccination is associated with a lower risk of dementia, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. In propensity-score matched cohort studies with 436,788 individuals, both the AS01-adjuvanted shingles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines, individually or combined, were associated with reduced 18-month risk of dementia. No difference was observed between the two AS01-adjuvanted vaccines, suggesting that the AS01 adjuvant itself plays a direct role in lowering dementia risk.


Published: 25 June 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-025-01172-3

Lower risk of dementia with AS01-adjuvanted vaccination against shingles and respiratory syncytial virus infections - npj Vaccines

AS01-adjuvanted shingles (herpes zoster) vaccination is associated with a lower risk of dementia, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. In propensity-score matched cohort studies with 436,788 individuals, both the AS01-adjuvanted shingles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines...

www.nature.com

 

[Chandelier]

This is the first paper that I post here.
Please let me know if there’s any potential for improving the structure or if the subject is too far fetched for this forum.
Thank you!

 

[forestglip]

Interesting, thanks!

One possibility is that they independently reduce dementia risk by preventing their respective infections, shingles and RSV. [...] However, the fact that a protective effect is seen within a few months of vaccination (as was observed in our previous study5) argues against this possibility as it seems unlikely that enough infections would be prevented during such a short time frame to explain the magnitude of the protection against dementia.

This seems like it could be important. They thought preventing the shingles infection was helping prevent dementia, but this is pointing to a specific ingredient found in multiple vaccines instead.