A team of scientists from the University of Colorado is likely to succeed in discovering that a common disease called shingles, or herpes zoster, can increase a person’s risk of stroke. The new findings reveal how latent viral infections reawaken following years of dormancy and cause health problems beyond the acute stage, according to the New Atlas website, citing the journal Infectious Diseases.
Chickenpox
Most people become infected with the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in childhood, and for some it may lead to a disease known as chickenpox. Although most signs of the disease resolve quickly in many people, the virus itself never really goes away and often remains dormant in the central nervous system.
In regarding 30% of cases, VZV reactivates at some point in their lives, causing disease once more. But when it’s awake and active once more, it’s called shingles. For the majority of patients, shingles is a rash and can be associated with a number of other health complications.
stroke risk
“Many people know regarding the painful rash associated with herpes zoster, but they may not realize that its complications include the risk of stroke, which goes up for a year following infection,” explained the lead researcher of the new study, Andrew Popak, noting that the most important point is that “the rash The cutaneous tissue often heals completely and the patient feels normal while walking around and living at a high risk of stroke.”
The researchers suspected that the increased risk was due to the formation of small, sack-like particles called exosomes that form inside cells and carry blood-clotting proteins to tissues in other parts of the body.
Latent symptoms for 3 months
The results revealed that exosomes in patients with shingles contained significantly higher amounts of clotting proteins than healthy subjects. Even more surprising, these levels were still high when samples were taken from patients with shingles three months following their acute disease had subsided.
blood clots
In an article published in The Conversation, Popak explained, “To functionally confirm that the contents of exosome particles can induce clotting, platelets – the fragments of cells responsible for blood clotting – of healthy subjects were exposed to exosomes from either herpes zoster patients or healthy subjects.” Exposing platelets to herpes zoster exosomes causes them to clump together and form clumps with other types of blood cells, as occurs in the formation of a blood clot.”
Influenza and COVID-19
An increased risk of stroke has also been linked to the effects of other viral infections, including influenza and COVID-19, but, at this point, the research is only focusing on stroke risk in relation to VZV infection, so it’s unclear if this mechanism plays a role in The relationship between stroke and other viral diseases.
Viral infections
According to Popak, there is more work to be done to better understand the relationship between stroke and viral infections, but in the short term, these new findings might help inform clinical practice. A vaccine has been approved to prevent shingles for adults over 50, but there are also anti-platelet medications that can be given to shingles patients who are at higher risk of stroke.
“If these findings are confirmed by a larger longitudinal study, the findings may change clinical practice,” Popak said. … It’s really important and its risks can be easily mitigated,” as clinical practice might include including mandatory treatment with antiplatelet agents to avoid thromboses and strokes.
