The shingles vaccine not only prevents the painful skin condition but also appears to slow aging in older people, a new study finds, adding to previous findings that it also protects against dementia.
The analysis, which examined more than 3,800 volunteers over the age of 70, showed that the shingles vaccine reduced parameters associated with aging, such as levels of inflammation, immune system function, blood circulation and degeneration of the nervous system.
At the molecular level, the vaccine also appears to protect cells from so-called epigenetic changes, chemical modifications to the DNA molecule that increase or decrease the activity of specific genes.
The findings “add to evidence that vaccines could play a role in promoting healthy aging by modulating biological systems beyond preventing infections,” said Jung-Ki Kim of the University of Southern California, who led the study.
Previous research, she explained, had shown that the shingles vaccine, and possibly the flu vaccine, reduce the risk of dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Chickenpox inheritance
Shingles is a painful rash that appears on the face or trunk of people who had chickenpox as children.
The childhood disease is caused by a herpes virus that integrates its genetic material into cells of the nervous system, thereby remaining permanently in the body. During periods of weakened immune systems in people over 50, the virus reactivates and causes shingles.
The new study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (“Study: Shingles Vaccine Linked to Slower Biological Aging in Older Adults“), showed that volunteers who received the vaccine were biologically younger than their unvaccinated peers, as measured by factors such as inflammation.
The mechanism of the phenomenon remains largely unclear, the researchers report in the journal Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.
The study examined the vaccine based on a live attenuated virus.
It remains unknown whether the findings also apply to the newer shingles vaccines, which are based on viral proteins.
