3 ms·
I wonder if this can be used for other latent viruses that embed in cells like herpes and chickenpox/shingles.
by sroussey 1y ago
I wonder if this can be used for other latent viruses that embed in cells like herpes and chickenpox/shingles.
- XorNot 1y agoThat would be interesting because both of those have links to various late-life neurological conditions aa well.
- stephen_g 1y agoYeah, latent EBV would be great too since it seems to be one of the main causes of MS. I believe this is already being researched with mRNA now, it would be amazing if it works out and we could treat all of these.
- amy214 1y agoNot just those but there are various other lesser known latent viruses such as JC virus and BK virus. Most of us are infected with these viruses latently. For most of us, they do nothing (that we know of!) for life. For the immunosuppressed (eg AIDS, organ transplants), because there is no immune system to keep these viruses "latent", they do actually reactivate and cause problems. For viruses which operate by embedding themselves in the DNA itself, such that for some time the virus may only exist as information encoded in some nucleotides and not a physical virus, to cure that would be a powerful achievement