That makes sense. Thanks for the reply. Isn’t it the case though that any kind of virus is going to be looked at skeptically as it pertains to research and development, especially herpes? I can’t imagine Dr. Cullen is making claim of progression without anything to back it up. Or maybe he is.
From the Cullen lab website:
"2) Have you developed a new treatment for cold sores?
The work we have performed provides a basis for the development of anti-HSV-1 and anti-HSV-2 drugs that might be able to permanently clear these viruses from patients."
Such statements are practically boilerplate, and really don’t say much. Let’s parse it carefully. “The work we have performed provides a basis for the development of anti-HSV-1 and anti-HSV-2 drugs.” OK, the lab has done a considerable amount of basic research, and they have a pretty solid publication record. Any basic disease research that adds to scientific knowledge can “provide a basis for the development of drugs”. Then, they say their entirely hypothetical drugs “might be able to permanently clear these viruses from patients” (bolding mine). No promises there. The “permanent” bit is intriguing, though without further reading I can’t evaluate that specifically.
Any lab that does basic research relating to human diseases can honestly make a similar statement.
Treatments I have found that work well to quiet an eruption are acyclovir (a prescription), hydrocortisone cream (a topical OTC at 1% or less solution), and Curasore (OTC, the cheapest but one of the best. It con tains ether in solution.) A few years ago I took part in a clinical study concerning a new tx for “cold” sores. I took either hydrocortisone, acyclovir, a new medicine, a combination of medicines, or a placebo). I had to report the stages of the sore once tx began. It took only a few days for the sore to completely disappear. I was never told what I applied, but I suspect it was hydrocortisone, as I get similar results with that. Once I was enthralled with Curasore,but It tends to leave a very dried up area for a while, and hydrocortisone is as cheap. Acyclovir, which I once took (with a prescription from a dentist) was no better and much more expensive.
Yea, I definitely see the generality of that statement regarding a permanent cure. I would just hope that a doctor with integrity wouldn’t just dangle that out there to solicite money.
The optimistic side of me says there is hope based on how fast we advance scientifically these days. I’m not sure what the realistic side of me says just yet.
Um, hydrocortisone is an immunosuppresant. That is, it shuts down the immune system. It’s used topically to decrease itching and swelling from bug bites, rashes, and other skin conditions. Itching and swelling are immune system reactions to proteins like mosquito saliva, urushiol (the stuff that makes poison ivy poison), and atopic eczema (which is an autoimmune disease).
You’re actually helping the herpes virus when you put hydrocortisone on an outbreak.
Most effective antivirals are some sort of nucleotide analogue - molecules that look (chemically) like one of the nucleotides that make up DNA (or the RNA analogues) but block DNA replication by not allowing chaining by viral DNA/RNA polymerase.
They work by stopping viral DNA replication, so replication is interfered with. However, to be effective, the virus has to be replicating. For HSV, during the latent phase, there is little viral replication and drugs like acyclovir have no impact. Some people with compromised immune systems or a continual cycle of HSV outbreaks are given ongoing Acyclovir treatment to catch the virus at the stage where it becomes active.
Also, the particular nucleotide analogue/enzyme target is important, too. I take a daily antiviral for a chronic Hepatitis B infection (a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, the same as used to treat HIV). It has no impact on HSV (or rhinoviruses, sadly).
Cortisone is an anti-inflammatory. True that it is an immunosuppressant, but the little I use does not significantly interfere with the immune system. It does, however, stop the inflammation. I did read years ago that it was contraindicatory for cold sores (probably for that reason), but I find it is very effective for cold sores. (Hydrocortisone was one of the treatments in the clinical study in which I participated in.)
Curasore contains ether which kills the virus, but topically it kills only the surface and near the skin virus; wheras, acyclovir attacks the virus more deeply. Symptomatically, in my experience, they’re about equal.
Chinese scientists at Florida university cured hepatitis C infections in mices and cell cultures completely. They’re using rna interference technology, wich is, -by my opinion- the only possible cure for herpes. It doesn’t attack cells, it attacks and destroys mRNA, used to reproduce viral proteins in cells. It is called nanozime.
This is a fairly new technology, (the mRNA interference phenomenon was firs observed in the 90’s in petunias) and it can be very dangerous, but there was no side effects or any kind of immune response to the drug in the research subjects. Even if it takes years to perfect this kind of drugs, I strongly belive that this is the most promising stuff that will help people fight against viruses in the near future.
“Nanozime” should be “nanozyme,” for anyone trying to find information on this. And on that note, I found the study in question, performed at the University of Florida.
Saying it had no side effects in the “research subjects” is not an accurate statement, though, as it was tested in cultured human and mouse cells, not in living subjects, as far as I can tell. It is way too early to be confidently predicting this will destroy hep C in a living human subject reliably, much less extrapolating to the rather different herpes virus.
We currently get cure rates in humans of about 40% to 80% with a variety of treatments at present, combinations of ribavirin, pegylated interferon, and (for genotype 1 viral infections) a protease inhibitor like teleprevir or ritonavir.
Hepatitis C is the only virus in humans that we are presently able to actually cure, or eradicate from the body.
Spam, or the startling revelation that herpes infection can be permanently cured by taking the right cocktail of herbs, depending on your point of view.