Word: acyclovir
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...down for life, most of the time hiding dormant in the cranial nerves near the spine. The virus can be triggered by outside stress, such as exposure to sunlight, a fever or emotional distress. After it's active and a cold sore appears, it's treatable with the drug acyclovir, marketed under the name Zovirax, which kills replicating HSV-1. But the mystery has been how to eliminate the virus while it's hiding, before it produces unsightly symptoms...
Understanding how to override the microRNA could allow scientists to activate the virus and then kill it using acyclovir. "Once the virus sticks its head up over the fence, you whack it off for good," Cullen says. "Yes, the person has to have one last cold sore, but it'd be worth it to most people to cure them forever...
...theory is that by activating the virus, then preventing it from returning to hibernation, which is when researchers think it gains strength, it can be completely eradicated. Cullen believes that a drug could be developed to block the microRNA that suppress HSV-1 into latency; once it's active, acyclovir can be used to destroy the virus permanently. Cullen suggests that this new research may also eventually be applied to other latent viruses, such as herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), which causes genital herpes, or the chicken pox virus, which causes shingles in adults. Cullen warns that some patients...
Current therapies--anti-inflammatories like prednisone and antivirals like acyclovir--are aimed at alleviating symptoms. But there may soon be a better option. A more potent version of the vaccine that's used to inoculate children against chicken pox is being tested on older adults, and if it works as well as hoped, millions of aging baby boomers will be lining up for shots. As for me, I've crossed shingles off my worry list. Very likely the attack I endured has rendered me immune to another...
...AIDS patients undergoing therapy with the drug AZT who were also given the antiviral agent acyclovir had a survival rate 44% higher than those who took just AZT, according to a new study...