4 ms·

67% of all humans carry HSV-1. I don’t think there is much prevention you could do http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/herpes-simplex-virus http://

by baxtr 8y ago

67% of all humans carry HSV-1. I don’t think there is much prevention you could do http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/herpes-simplex-virus http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/herpes-simpl...

jopsen 8y ago
Well, we could work on a cure and vaccine for HSV-1. Whether or not it mitigates Alzheimer's I sure would pay a lot of money to not deal with cold sores every winter.
- yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
  There already is an effective therapeutic vaccine. There has been for years. The problem is, it's only done a phase II clinic trial. They need USD$20mm to move through the third phase, and onto mass production. The company is called AuRx. If anyone has twenty million in their pocket, please end herpes for all. Peter Thiel's investment firm threw USD$7mm at Rational Vaccines last year, but unfortunately as far as I'm aware they are mired in a legal battle since their first human "clinical trial" was performed outside the supervision of the regulators. Rational Vaccines (Prof. William Halford) developed Theravax, a live-attenuated vaccine. It operates on the same principle as the vaccine developed by AuRx, but IIRC, not quite as safely and effectively. Aside from this, our only (as far as I'm aware) hopes are CRISPR efforts from either Editas or Excision Bio, or an antiviral developed by NanoViricides.
  - echelon 8y ago
    Have they thought about crowd funding a raise? I'd contribute. Surely they can do something outside of institutional investing.
    - yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
      Yeah, there have been many attempts at crowdfunding this stuff. As it turns out, nobody cares that much. You'd think all the celebrities who buy $100mm mansions could do something about it (since statistically they probably all have it), but no. If we're lucky, Thiel's investment will turn good. I'm sure his associates aren't morons and they didn't invest in a dud. Last I heard, Rational Vaccines are ramping up to proper human clinic trials within FDA regulations. We just need to wait. Excision Bio should be running human clinical trials either next year or the following, and our collective understanding of CRISPR is expanding rapidly. So that's something to be excited about. Not that this makes waiting any less painful for sufferers.
      - delbel 8y ago
        wait, hold on. there's an effective drug that cures HHV-1 and alot of other things include the cryptoplasma cat parasite virus, and Herpies 2. There's no toxic limit (people take 4g twice a day with no side effect, way over what is needed to kill it) and it works within 48-72 hours. We don't need a vaccine. It could be sold over the counter. There are two groups that have separate method of actions, so if it fails there's another one.
        yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
        This is categorically false. There is no cure for HSV. The current state of care is periodic retroactive therapy in the case of an outbreak, or continuous prophylaxis which isn't completely effective due to lack of bioavailability. People still get outbreaks during prophylaxis, and people still shed the virus when symptoms aren't present.
        delbel 8y ago
        if your a doctor I'll send you the name of the drugs. They came out in 2015 and are about $80 each a pill, but you can buy them in India for $.34 each.
        yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
        I am not a doctor, just a relatively informed individual. I believe the drug you are talking about is Pritelivir/Amenamevir, currently marketed in Japan under the name Amenalief. Am I correct? If so, I was not aware they are available in India for such a low price.
sametmax 8y ago
What we can do is realize that HSV-1 is not the problem. The fact that some individuals' immune system let it through hint that there is a more important causal issue somewhere. Herpes may be a simple symptom, not a disease. And maybe it's a symptom of a condition that is similar to the one that let Alzheimer’s set in. Who knows, maybe Alzheimer's is a symptom too of a more deep, complex and subtitle disorder.
- StavrosK 8y ago
  This made me realize that future humans will view our understanding of Alzheimer's the way we view people's understanding of AIDS in the 60s. "You mean they were getting Alzheimer's left and right, and they hadn't noticed it was caused/transmitted by X?!" Assuming there's some preventable cause or vector, anyway.
  - chiefalchemist 8y ago
    It might be a long time before we know. The fact is the body / brain is exposed to a lot of chemicals and compounds that have __never__ been verified for safety - either alone or when combined with others. At this point there are simple too many of these and the combinations even larger. _If__ such things contribute to anything, we'll likely never know.
  - jacobolus 8y ago
    Nitpick: AIDS wasn’t really noticed at all in the US until the beginning of the 1980s, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_HIV/AIDS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_HIV/AIDS
    - ams6110 8y ago
      Prior to the late 1970s / early 1980s, the stigma associated with homosexuality was much stronger. Being gay, and having multiple sex partners, was something that most gay men would probably not admit to. In many areas it would be admitting to a crime. So in the case histories of early AIDS sufferers, that commonality may not have been clear.
jseliger 8y ago
67% of all humans carry HSV-1. I don’t think there is much prevention you could do Actually, there's quite a lot we can do, and relatively cheaply, too: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-we-still-dont-have-a-herpes-vaccine https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-we-still-dont-hav... : However, Clark said a phase III trial would have cost $150 million and taken three years. In the end, the company’s board and investors were “unwilling to take on the investment.” "We" are just choosing not to do it.
- chasil 8y ago
  I had read years ago that all the herpes viruses emit RNA strands into the nucleus upon initial infection and conversion of the cell into a "provirus." This RNA serves to keep the virus latent and quiet, perhaps for years. Only when this suppressive RNA is washed out of the nucleus does replication begin. The idea was to remove all of this RNA everywhere in a controlled manner while administering acyclovir or another antiviral. I don't know what inaccessible resovoirs remain for the herpes family. The brain would be particularly hard to reach. Such a treatment might also trigger shingles, mono, and ks all at once if it was too widely targeted or if the antiviral wasn't strong enough.
- yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
  It's pretty crazy that Chip Clark would even suggest anyone should spend $150mm on GEN-003 — a subunit vaccine (which the late Prof. Halford explained is unlikely to move the needle on HSV treatment due to lack of antigenic breadth) — instead of spending $20mm on AuRx — a live-attenuated (IIRC) vaccine which has proven more effective than GEN-003 in Phase II trials. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262422871_Antigenic_breadth_A_missing_ingredient_in_HSV-2_subunit_vaccines https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262422871_Antigenic...
stevenwoo 8y ago
The article mentions that one of the viruses which seems correlated with Alzheimer's from multiple studies is HHV–6A and 99% of people carry that one, but for unknown reasons the viral infection is much more active in people with Alzheimer's symptoms, though the number of ApoE genes is correlated with risk of active viral infection/Alzheimer's per individual.

by baxtr 8y ago

jopsen 8y ago

Well, we could work on a cure and vaccine for HSV-1. Whether or not it mitigates Alzheimer's I sure would pay a lot of money to not deal with cold sores every winter.

yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
There already is an effective therapeutic vaccine. There has been for years. The problem is, it's only done a phase II clinic trial. They need USD$20mm to move through the third phase, and onto mass production. The company is called AuRx. If anyone has twenty million in their pocket, please end herpes for all. Peter Thiel's investment firm threw USD$7mm at Rational Vaccines last year, but unfortunately as far as I'm aware they are mired in a legal battle since their first human "clinical trial" was performed outside the supervision of the regulators. Rational Vaccines (Prof. William Halford) developed Theravax, a live-attenuated vaccine. It operates on the same principle as the vaccine developed by AuRx, but IIRC, not quite as safely and effectively. Aside from this, our only (as far as I'm aware) hopes are CRISPR efforts from either Editas or Excision Bio, or an antiviral developed by NanoViricides.
- echelon 8y ago
  Have they thought about crowd funding a raise? I'd contribute. Surely they can do something outside of institutional investing.
  - yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
    Yeah, there have been many attempts at crowdfunding this stuff. As it turns out, nobody cares that much. You'd think all the celebrities who buy $100mm mansions could do something about it (since statistically they probably all have it), but no. If we're lucky, Thiel's investment will turn good. I'm sure his associates aren't morons and they didn't invest in a dud. Last I heard, Rational Vaccines are ramping up to proper human clinic trials within FDA regulations. We just need to wait. Excision Bio should be running human clinical trials either next year or the following, and our collective understanding of CRISPR is expanding rapidly. So that's something to be excited about. Not that this makes waiting any less painful for sufferers.
    - delbel 8y ago
      wait, hold on. there's an effective drug that cures HHV-1 and alot of other things include the cryptoplasma cat parasite virus, and Herpies 2. There's no toxic limit (people take 4g twice a day with no side effect, way over what is needed to kill it) and it works within 48-72 hours. We don't need a vaccine. It could be sold over the counter. There are two groups that have separate method of actions, so if it fails there's another one.
      - yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
        This is categorically false. There is no cure for HSV. The current state of care is periodic retroactive therapy in the case of an outbreak, or continuous prophylaxis which isn't completely effective due to lack of bioavailability. People still get outbreaks during prophylaxis, and people still shed the virus when symptoms aren't present.
        delbel 8y ago
        if your a doctor I'll send you the name of the drugs. They came out in 2015 and are about $80 each a pill, but you can buy them in India for $.34 each.
        yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
        I am not a doctor, just a relatively informed individual. I believe the drug you are talking about is Pritelivir/Amenamevir, currently marketed in Japan under the name Amenalief. Am I correct? If so, I was not aware they are available in India for such a low price.

sametmax 8y ago

What we can do is realize that HSV-1 is not the problem. The fact that some individuals' immune system let it through hint that there is a more important causal issue somewhere. Herpes may be a simple symptom, not a disease. And maybe it's a symptom of a condition that is similar to the one that let Alzheimer’s set in. Who knows, maybe Alzheimer's is a symptom too of a more deep, complex and subtitle disorder.

StavrosK 8y ago
This made me realize that future humans will view our understanding of Alzheimer's the way we view people's understanding of AIDS in the 60s. "You mean they were getting Alzheimer's left and right, and they hadn't noticed it was caused/transmitted by X?!" Assuming there's some preventable cause or vector, anyway.
- chiefalchemist 8y ago
  It might be a long time before we know. The fact is the body / brain is exposed to a lot of chemicals and compounds that have __never__ been verified for safety - either alone or when combined with others. At this point there are simple too many of these and the combinations even larger. _If__ such things contribute to anything, we'll likely never know.
- jacobolus 8y ago
  Nitpick: AIDS wasn’t really noticed at all in the US until the beginning of the 1980s, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_HIV/AIDS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_HIV/AIDS
  - ams6110 8y ago
    Prior to the late 1970s / early 1980s, the stigma associated with homosexuality was much stronger. Being gay, and having multiple sex partners, was something that most gay men would probably not admit to. In many areas it would be admitting to a crime. So in the case histories of early AIDS sufferers, that commonality may not have been clear.

jseliger 8y ago

67% of all humans carry HSV-1. I don’t think there is much prevention you could do Actually, there's quite a lot we can do, and relatively cheaply, too: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-we-still-dont-have-a-herpes-vaccine https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-we-still-dont-hav... : However, Clark said a phase III trial would have cost $150 million and taken three years. In the end, the company’s board and investors were “unwilling to take on the investment.” "We" are just choosing not to do it.

chasil 8y ago
I had read years ago that all the herpes viruses emit RNA strands into the nucleus upon initial infection and conversion of the cell into a "provirus." This RNA serves to keep the virus latent and quiet, perhaps for years. Only when this suppressive RNA is washed out of the nucleus does replication begin. The idea was to remove all of this RNA everywhere in a controlled manner while administering acyclovir or another antiviral. I don't know what inaccessible resovoirs remain for the herpes family. The brain would be particularly hard to reach. Such a treatment might also trigger shingles, mono, and ks all at once if it was too widely targeted or if the antiviral wasn't strong enough.
yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
It's pretty crazy that Chip Clark would even suggest anyone should spend $150mm on GEN-003 — a subunit vaccine (which the late Prof. Halford explained is unlikely to move the needle on HSV treatment due to lack of antigenic breadth) — instead of spending $20mm on AuRx — a live-attenuated (IIRC) vaccine which has proven more effective than GEN-003 in Phase II trials. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262422871_Antigenic_breadth_A_missing_ingredient_in_HSV-2_subunit_vaccines https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262422871_Antigenic...

stevenwoo 8y ago

The article mentions that one of the viruses which seems correlated with Alzheimer's from multiple studies is HHV–6A and 99% of people carry that one, but for unknown reasons the viral infection is much more active in people with Alzheimer's symptoms, though the number of ApoE genes is correlated with risk of active viral infection/Alzheimer's per individual.