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Association between human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and cognitive function in the elderly population in Shenzhen, China

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Abstract

Aim

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is neurophilic, and its relationship with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains controversial. This study aimed to examine the relationships between HHV-6 and cognitive abilities in elderly people aged 60 years or above from communities in Shenzhen.

Methods

We recruited participants from 10 community health service centers in Shenzhen. Participants were divided into case and control groups according to Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale standards and were included in this study with 1:1 matching based on sex and age (± 3 years). The HHV-6 gene was detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR, and the HHV-6 copy number was quantified.

Results

A total of 580 participants (cases, n = 290; controls, n = 290), matched for gender and age was included in this study. A positive HHV-6 test was not associated with a significant difference in global cognitive performance (ORadjusted = 1.651, 95% CI = 0.671–4.062). After adjusting for gender, age, education, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score, homocysteine (Hcy) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), the results of multiple linear regression showed that there was a statistically negative correlation between HHV-6 copy number and orientation (βadjusted = −0.974, p = 0.013), attention and calculation (βadjusted = −1.840, p < 0.001), and language (βadjusted = −2.267, p < 0.001). The restricted cubic spline (RCS) model results showed that there was a nonlinear dose–response relationship between HHV-6 log10-transformed copies and orientation (poverall = 0.003, pnonliner = 0.045), attention and calculation (poverall < 0.001, pnonliner < 0.001), and language (poverall < 0.001, pnonliner = 0.016).

Conclusions

HHV-6 infection significantly associated with orientation, attention and calculation, and language in elderly individuals.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank all of the volunteers for their participation in our study. We also thank our colleagues for help with participant recruitment, the staff at the Cognitive Impairment Ward of Neurology Department, Third Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University Medical College.

Funding

This work was supported by Shenzhen Basic Research Key Project (JCYJ20200109143431341), Shenzhen Key Medical Discipline Construction Fund (SZXK069), and Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (SZSM201611090).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology, Shenzhen Medical Key Discipline of Health Toxicology (2020–2024), Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, No 8 Longyuan Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, 518055, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Chao Huang, Wei Liu, Xiaohu Ren, Lu Wang, Jia Huang, Desheng Wu, Li Zhou, Xinfeng Huang & Jianjun Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Chao Huang, Yuan Lv, Jia Huang & Jianjun Liu

  3. Cognitive Impairment Ward of Neurology Department, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University Medical College, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Feiqi Zhu

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  1. Chao Huang
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Correspondence to Jianjun Liu.

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The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Ethical approval

All participants agreed to join in the study and provide informed written consent. The study has been approved by the Review Board of Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention (approval numbers: R2017001 and R2018020).

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Written and oral informed consent was collected from all participants prior to enrolment.

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Huang, C., Liu, W., Ren, X. et al. Association between human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and cognitive function in the elderly population in Shenzhen, China. Aging Clin Exp Res 34, 2407–2415 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-022-02170-4

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