New drugs could stop the herpes virus and its relatives specializing in escaping the traps, reports Science Translational Medicine.
The herpes virus is characterized by the fact that the symptoms of the infection keep coming back. Viruses that cause changes in the genitals, infectious mononucleosis, and in some cases blindness and fetal malformations, belonging to the same family, can avoid the traps set by the immune system and appear after long hiding in the nerve cells of the infected organism (so-called virus latency). The activation of the virus can occur under the influence of external factors – stress, colds, menstruation or weakening of the organism, less often spontaneously.
When a virus infects cells, the body defends itself by surrounding its genome with a structure that prevents gene expression. However, the virus can escape by using the cell’s own enzymes to release it. Having regained its freedom, it can spread again.
Thomas Kristie of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda (USA) and his colleagues have developed a drug that inhibits the action of enzymes that allow the virus to be released.
Researchers tested the new treatment in mice infected with cytomegalovirus, which can cause malformations, and in mice infected with type 1 herpes, causing damage to the mouth and eye.
About a month after infection, when the virus entered dormancy, scientists took neurons from a region of the brain where the virus likes to hide, and grew the cells on medium. The treated mice failed to reactivate the virus, suggesting that the infection would not recover. The measure taken also appears to limit the extent of the initial infection.
According to Kristie, other viruses with similar mechanisms of action, such as HIV, could also be combated in a similar way.
Scientists from other centers commenting on the results of the study point out that it will still be necessary to investigate the possible side effects of the potential drug – it probably affects not only enzymes related to the activity of the virus.
- Read more: Pregnancy and herpes