Latest News On Genital Herpes Cure

Concerns About Potential Toxicities

The Hutch scientists note, however, that the good news is tempered by recent concerns within the gene therapy field about the potential for therapies using AAVs to cause liver and nerve damage.

The toxicity issue has been raised by other gene therapy researchers based on their own experiments. It does not appear to involve the gene-cutting enzymes used in the Hutch herpes studies, where those molecular scissors are performing as expected. Instead, it focuses on the AAVs used to package and transport them.

âAAV vectors in general have been considered quite safe. ⦠However, emerging work has suggested that AAV vectors may not be as fully innocuous as previously assumed,â the Hutch authors wrote in the bioRxiv paper.

They observed liver toxicity in some of their mice, but said it seems to be the result of very high concentrations of AAV, well above what is now known to be needed.

âWe know what the toxic dose is, and we get good results below that,â Jerome said.

The neurotoxicity is potentially more concerning. The Hutch team reported âsubtle evidence of neuronal injuryâ in mice when tissue samples were examined under a powerful microscope. However, they also saw no evidence in those animals of changes in behavior or mobility â such as gait or balance disturbances â after the gene therapy.

A priority in the next round of research will be to solve that mystery and, if necessary, find a way around it. The researchers remain confident the problem is solvable.

Combinatorial Herpes Simplex Vaccine Strategies: From Bedside To Bench And Back

• 1Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, School of Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
• 2Department of Vaccines and Immunotherapies, TechImmune, Limited Liability Company , University Lab Partners, Irvine, CA, United States
• 3Biomedical Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
• 4Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Institute for Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States

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A Safe Organic Supplement To Replace All Herpes Vaccines

The HerpaGreens supplement is considered safe for use and free from major side effects as it contains only organic ingredients. However, customers should consult their healthcare provider before taking this supplement if they are pregnant, nursing, or if they are taking any OTC or prescription medications for a health condition.

Statistics revealed by the World Health Organization show that more than 500 million people in the world suffer from an HSV-2 infection that persists for a lifetime and often triggers a flare-up in response to stress. Both forms of the herpes simplex virus, the HSV-2 and HSV-2 can cause a herpes infection in newborns and could lead to blindness and other serious infections in those with an impaired immune system. The risk of an HIV infection is also increased by an HSV infection and may contribute to Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia.

Many people question why science has been unable to develop a herpes vaccine for so long when we have several for Covid-19 after just a few months. A recent study conducted by Dr. Houssein H. Ayoub, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics at Qatar University, and Dr. Laith Jamal Abu Raddad, Professor of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University highlight the scale of HSV-2 burden in the U.S. and demonstrates the need for continuous surveillance and to develop prophylactic and therapeutic HSV-2 vaccines.

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Lessons Learned From Past Hsv Vaccine Clinical Trials

The vaccine clinical trials produced valuable lessons that should help improve future herpes subunit vaccines. Specifically, these trials emphasize four major gaps in our current knowledge: The need to incorporate protective herpes protein Ags, other than gB and gD, in the development of a future herpes therapeutic vaccine The need to design a vaccine strategy that induces anti-viral CD4+ and CD8+ T cell-mediated immunity for a better protection against recurrent herpes . This includes exploring new adjuvants and antigen delivery systems, and The need to develop a mucosal vaccine strategy that would induce strong tissue resident CD4+ and CD8+ TRM cells that would reduce virus reactivation from latently infected dorsal root ganglia and subsequent virus shedding in the genital tract and recurrent herpetic disease. This is because of the failure of past parenteral subunit vaccines that elicit systemic immune responses against HSV-2. Although most of these vaccine research trials have not been promising, we have gained a better understanding of the correlates of protective immunity for a therapeutic HSV vaccine, forming the platform for novel combinatorial vaccine strategies against HSV.

Genital Shedding Of Hsv

Forty-three subjects with HSV-2 infection collected anogenital swabs on 60 consecutive days, beginning 3 to 6 months after disease onset or seroconversion . Analysis of these swabs showed that the rate of viral shedding was higher among the HSV-vaccine recipients than among controls . The mean quantity of HSV DNA on days with shedding did not differ between the two groups.

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Talking To A Partner Aboutgenital Herpes Or Cold Sores

It’s natural to be concerned about telling a new partner that you have genital herpes. Fear of being rejected and perhaps being uncomfortable about sexual health concerns makes it a tricky subject to bring up. However, it is more likely that your partner will respect your openness and honesty and it will be an opportunity to take your relationship to a deeper level of trust and understanding.

Possible Herpes Keratitis Cure Takes Another Step: Bdgene Of China Applies For Orphan Drug Designation At The Fda

Chinese company BDGene from Shanghai continues to lead in the global race for a herpes keratitis cure. The highly anticipated treatment, BD111 has reached a big milestone as it applied for Orphan Drug designation from the US FDA. Previously, BD111 has received international attention for its progress with a gene editing cure for herpes keratitis. We reported on its progress which it has published in the top international academic journals Nature Biotechnology and Nature Biomedical Engineering.

BD Gene has carried out 3 cases of IIT human clinical trials, and has reported pre-clinical results where study subjects were cleared of the virus. The potential to change the landscape for Herpes treatment has patient advocates very excited.

Orphan drugs, also known as rare disease drugs, refer to drugs used for the prevention, treatment and diagnosis of rare diseases. The orphan drug designation granted by the FDA applies to drugs and biologics for rare diseases that affect less than 200,000 people in the United States each year, and provides policy support for related products. Therefore, obtaining orphan drug designation is of great advantage for manufacturers bringing new medicines to market.

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Take Action To Help Prevent Neonatal Herpes

Herpes Cure Advocacy has launched a new Neonatal Herpes Task Force to provide support for families, engage with stakeholders, physicians, and scientists, and create change to protect Americans from neonatal herpes.

Families, clinicians and professionals, public health policy, and any advocates for change are welcome.

Neonatal Herpes Task Force Kickoff Meeting

Tweak To Pritelivir Allows Treatment Of Latent Herpes Infections

A team of researchers at Innovative Molecules GmbH, working with several other institutions in Germany, has developed a small-molecule therapy for the treatment of latent herpes simplex virus infections. In their paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group describes tweaking a drug used for treating active herpes infections for treatments of both active and latent herpes infections in rodents.

The tweaking by the team involved changing out a sulfonamide for a sulfoximine to remove undesired off-target effects. They also changed one of the aromatic groups to make the molecule even smaller, allowing it to enter the central nervous system. The team has named the new therapy IM-250.

Testing of the new therapy showed it prevented death in mice that were given lethal loads of HSV-1 viruses. They also found that it reduced symptoms in guinea pigs infected with HSV-2 and prevented the reemergence of symptoms even after the therapy was stopped.

More information:Science Translational MedicineJournal information:

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Can I Be Treated To Prevent Genital Herpes Transmission To My Partner

Yes. A large study showed that if one partner has herpes and the other partner is uninfected, treating the infected partner with suppressive therapy can prevent transmission of symptomatic herpes in over 90% of cases. This is an option for couples who are interested in having unprotected sex or who are planning to become pregnant.

If you are entering into a new relationship and are aware that you have herpes simplex infection, you owe it to your partner to notify them before having sex.

What Results Have You Seen That Support The Clinical Development Of Gd

Extensive molecular and pre-clinical work has been completed for gD-2, which induces immunity against both HSV-1 and HSV-2 challenge in multiple pre-clinical models. Not only did the candidate prevent disease, but gD-2 also prevented the virus from reactivation. Latency refers to the ability of the herpes virus to remain dormant particularly in nerve tissue, often establishing lifelong infection with frequent subclinical or clinical reactivation.

In multiple preclinical models we demonstrated that vaccination with gD-2 completely protects from herpes disease and reactivation protection is strongly correlated with the formation of ADCC antibodies mediating the killing of infected cells and thereby blocking viral spread.

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Is There Any Resistance To Genital Herpes Medication

Resistance to drugs that treat genital herpes even after 20 years of use is very rare. Herpes medications may not work as well in patients who are very immunosuppressed and have been treated with these drugs for a long time. Each individuals response to treatment may vary. In some cases, patients may need more drugs to suppress their viral outbreaks than others.

Herpes Vaccine Clinical Trials

There are currently both preventive and therapeutic vaccines under development. While the primary focus is on HSV-2, the primary cause of genital infection, HSV-2 vaccines may also have benefits in preventing or treating HSV-1 infection. In addition to work being done in the preclinical stage, there are several vaccines in clinical trials. More information on those listed below and other clinical trials can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov, a resource of the National Library of Medicine.

Phase I

• HSV529: Clinical trials for this HSV-2 vaccine candidate are studying both preventive and therapeutic applications. HSV529 uses a replication-defective mutant virus, which is genetically altered to prevent the virus from replicating. In the first phase, researchers are studying the safety of HSV529 vaccine and the ability of the vaccine to elicit immune responses to HSV-2 including virus-specific antibodies and T cell responses to the virus.

Phase II

For more on the current status of herpes vaccine development, including vaccine candidates in the preclinical phase, see this article prepared for the WHO Product Development Vaccine Advisory Committee.

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Herpes Vaccines For 2022

Developing protective herpes simplex virus vaccines has been an ongoing challenge for decades. Various herpes vaccine candidates are based on DNA, modified mRNA, protein subunit, killed virus, and attenuated live virus vaccine technologies.

The herpes simplex virus exists as two biologically distinct serotypes, HSV-1 and HSV-2, which differ mainly by their transmission mode, says the U.S. CDC.

As of September 4, 2022, the U.S. FDA, Europe, Canada, India, the U.K., and the WHO had not Authorized or Approved any herpes prevention vaccine.

However, there are various clinical trials actively recruiting participants.

Herpesviruses Association With Pre

On May 11, 2022, a study published in Diabetologia examined the prospective association of herpesviruses with diabetes to evaluate their potential role in diabetes etiology. Conclusions/interpretation: The associations of HSV2 and cytomegalovirus serostatus with diabetes incidence indicate that these herpesviruses may contribute to the development of impaired glucose metabolism. These study results highlight the link between viral infection and diabetes.

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‘i Hope That This Study Changes The Dialogue Around Herpes Research And Opens Up The Idea That We Can Start Thinking About Cure Rather Than Just Control Of The Virus’

â Dr. Keith Jerome, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Whereas most research on herpes has focused on suppressing the recurrence of painful symptoms, the Fred Hutch gene therapy work addresses the root cause of reactivation: the presence of latent virus in infected nerve cells.

âI hope that this study changes the dialogue around herpes research and opens up the idea that we can start thinking about cure, rather than just control of the virus,â Jerome said.

It will still take a long time before these experiments lead to the first human trials of gene therapy to cure herpes. Jerome estimates that will be at least three years away.

Herpes simplex viruses afflict billions of human beings around the globe. According to the World Health Organization, two-thirds of the world population under the age of 50 carry herpes simplex virus type 1, or HSV-1, which primarily causes cold sores, while 491 million people aged 15-49 are infected with closely related HSV-2, which is the cause of sexually transmitted genital herpes.

Where Does The Herpes Virus Live In The Body

The herpes simplex viruses are latent, meaning they can live in the body without causing symptoms. After the initial infection, the virus gets into the nerve roots and spreads to the sensory nerve ganglia, the junctions where nerves from different parts of the body come together. For the genital area, the ganglia are adjacent to the spinal cord in the lower back. For orofacial herpes , the ganglia are located behind the cheek bone.

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To Medicate Or Not To Medicate For Herpes

Oral antiviral medication is an effective treatment/management for problematic herpes simplex and can improve your quality of life by providing a sense of control and physical and mental relief from experiencing recurrences of herpes.

Knowing about herpes simplex treatment options provides you with information to have an open and informed discussion with your doctor about what is best for you.

New Clinical Trial For Herpes Simplex Virus

GlaxoSmithKline Pipeline UpdateGSK has officially updated its clinical research pipeline to include a vaccine for HSV-2! Their therapeutic vaccine for HSV-2 isnt mRNA but an adjuvanted therapeutic vaccine.

The trial is a Phase 1/2 combined trial that ends in 2024. GSK will test 9 different formulations as a prophylactic, the one that has the highest efficacy will then be tested in Part 2 as a therapeutic. Ultimately, advocates assume, that GSK will make one vaccine as both a prophylactic/therapeutic.

For other projects in the Herpes Cure Pipeline, see here.

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A Clinical Research Study For The Suppression And Treatment Of Genital Herpes Infection In Hiv

Could Peptoids Be A Wide

Additional experiments are now underway to confirm the mouse findings. In addition, the peptoids could be effective against HSV-1 drug-resistant strains. The antimicrobial molecules could have a host of applications. Work is ongoing at Stanford to explore their impact on ear and lung infections. Dr. Barrons team has sent peptoid samples to experts in other labs to test against a range of viruses. There have been promising results in lab dish studies against influenza, the cold virus, and hepatitis B and C.

In their in vitro studies, a team found that two of the peptoids were the most potent antivirals ever identified against MERS and older SARS coronaviruses, Dr. Barron says.

Other labs are testing the peptoids as anti-fungals for airways, the gut, and as anti-infective coatings for contact lenses, catheters, and implanted hip and knee joints. The researchers are studying how these broad-spectrum compounds work. The study notes that such antivirals seem to pierce and break up the viral envelope and also bind to the virus DNA.

That multipronged mechanism has the advantage of inactivating the virus. Standard antivirals slow replication but still allow viruses to infect cells. It also makes it less likely that pathogens could develop resistance.

The team presented their findings at the American Chemical Society virtual meeting ACS Fall 2021.

South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report. This article was first published August 27, 2021.

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