Use of antiviral drugs and incidence of Parkinson's disease in Taiwan

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 5; p. e0302383
• Main Authors: Zhang, Han-Wei, Xie, Jun, Peng, Hsiao-Ching, Lin, Yu-Shan, Song, Ji-Quan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 07.05.2024; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Analysis; Anemia; Antiparkinsonian agents; Antiviral agents; Antiviral Agents - therapeutic use; Antiviral drugs; Autoimmune diseases; Biology and Life Sciences; Cardiac arrhythmia; Cardiovascular disease; Dementia; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Development and progression; Diabetes; Disease susceptibility; DNA; DNA biosynthesis; Dopamine; Drug therapy; Drug use; Drugs; Female; Head injuries; Health insurance; Heart failure; Heavy metals; Herpes viruses; Herpes zoster; Herpes Zoster - drug therapy; Herpes Zoster - epidemiology; Humans; Hyperlipidemia; Hypertension; Incidence; Infections; Male; Malnutrition; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Movement disorders; Nervous system; Neurodegeneration; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurophysiology; Parkinson Disease - drug therapy; Parkinson Disease - epidemiology; Parkinson's disease; Pesticides; Pharmacology, Experimental; Proportional Hazards Models; Research methodology; Retrospective Studies; Risk; Risk Factors; Statistics; Stroke; Taiwan - epidemiology; User statistics; Taiwan; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302383

Patients infected with herpes zoster might be at risk for Parkinson's disease (PD). However, antiviral drugs may impede viral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis. This study aimed to determine whether the currently observed association between herpes zoster and PD is consistent with previous findings, and whether antiviral drug use is associated with PD. This retrospective cohort study used the Longitudinal Generation Tracking Database. We included patients aged 40 years and above and applied propensity score matching at 1:1 ratio for study comparability. PD risk was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression methods. A total of 234,730 people were analyzed. The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for PD in patients with herpes zoster was 1.05. Furthermore, the overall incidence of PD was lower in those treated with antiviral drugs than in the untreated ones (3.17 vs. 3.76 per 1,000 person-years); the aHR was 0.84. After stratifying for sex or age, a similar result was observed. In conclusion, herpes zoster may increase the risk of PD, particularly among females, but receiving antiviral treatment reduces the risk by 16%. Therefore, using antiviral drugs may help prevent PD. However, additional research is required to determine the underlying mechanism(s).