Early and middle-aged patients who are infected and in need appear to have an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) at a relatively young age, according to new research. The study was conducted by Jiangwei Sun., PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm whose results were published online on September 15 in PLOS Medicine 2022.
Researchers in Sweden analyzed data from several large national registries, and compared individuals diagnosed with AD, PD, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with age and sex-matched controls selected at random from the general population.
They found that those who had an infection and were hospitalized 5 years or more previously had a 16% increased risk of AD and a 0.04% increased risk of PD. Multiple infections before the age of 30 years provided a more than 2.5 times increased risk of AD and a 1.5 times increased risk of PD before age 60 years. The increased risk of AD and PD is associated with bacterial, viral, other infections and different sites of infection, including gastrointestinal and genitourinary infections.
From the study, the investigators concluded that individuals with hospitalized infections, particularly those occurring in middle age, have an increased risk of developing AD and PD, due to cases diagnosed before 60 years of age.
However further studies are needed to validate these findings, to elucidate the underlying mechanisms, and to determine whether better control of hospitalized infections can prevent or delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases, especially those with relatively early onset in life.
Image: Illustration (source:https://www.bhf.org.uk/)
References:
1. Jiangwei Sun ,Jonas F. Ludvigsson,Caroline Ingre,Fredrik Piehl,Karin Wirdefeldt,Ulrika Zagai,Weimin Ye,Fang Fang. Hospital-treated infections in early- and mid-life and risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A nationwide nested case-control study in Sweden. PLOS Medicine. Internet [Cited 22/09/2022]. Availabe from:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004092
2. Batya Swift Yasgur MA, LSW.Serious Infections Linked to Early Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease.https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/981175#vp_1
