Varicella zoster virus (VZV)… causes chickenpox and establishes life-long latency in the cranial nerve and dorsal root ganglia of the host.
To date, VZV is the only virus consistently reported to have an inverse association with glioma.
Here, we utilized the GICC data to confirm the previously reported associations between history of chickenpox and glioma risk in one of the largest studies to date on this topic.
[W]e found that a positive history of chickenpox was associated with a 21% lower glioma risk…
[T]he protective effect of chickenpox was stronger for high-grade gliomas.
Our study provides additional evidence that the observed protective effect of chickenpox against glioma is unlikely to be coincidental.
[B]ecause of its ability to replicate rapidly and lyse malignant glioma cells in vitro, VZV has even been proposed as a novel candidate for glioma virotherapy.
Findings from the previous literature, bolstered by those of our study, provide strong epidemiologic rationale for continued investigation of the potential role of chickenpox in glioma development.
Future studies will need to account for the potential impact of the VZV vaccine, which was licensed in 1995 in the U.S. for use among children…
Prior serologic analyses have demonstrated that antibody composition differs between children who experience a wild-type VZV infection versus those who were received the vaccine.
Some evidence indicates that antibodies against specific VZV-encoded proteins may be more important than others in conferring protection against glioma, but the vaccine does not contain antigens corresponding to all 70 VZV open reading frames.