3 ms·
A cure for herpes means the excision of viral DNA from the infected cells. Herpes is one of those viruses that stays with a person for life by means of establis
by eganist 8y ago
A cure for herpes means the excision of viral DNA from the infected cells. Herpes is one of those viruses that stays with a person for life by means of establishing persistence with DNA insertion.
Because of this, any cure will probably rely on CRISPR/Cas9 or variants of this process. E.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29844277 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29844277
What you're drawing attention to there, if I'm reading it correctly, is that the presence of the antibodies resulting from the vaccine enables an immune response to consistently check an outbreak just as it's starting, potentially mitigating an outbreak before one becomes visibly apparent.
But I'm probably not reading it correctly. All I'm confident in is that anything short of literally cutting the viral DNA out of the infected cells won't actually cure an infection.
- colordrops 8y agoThis isn't a rigorous scientific forum. Definition of "cure": verb 1. relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition. "he was cured of the disease" synonyms: heal, restore to health, make well/better; archaic: cleanse "after a long course of treatment, he was cured" I'm referring to the colloquial usage of "cure", which is all anyone cares about in this context. Who cares if the DNA is there if the symptoms are completely gone?
- eganist 8y agoHerpes sheds asymptomatically, and it can still infect neighboring cells as a result. Just because an outbreak isn't visible e.g. because the immune system counteracts it early on doesn't mean the virus isn't still spreading. Like I said, unless the viral dna is excised, you'll always have it. As an aside, you're aiming for the term "functionally cured." Since the virus could still shed... even that's not achieved here.