Genital Herpes Cure Research

Millions of people suffer from genital herpes making the need for a cure to the disease an urgent one. Genital herpes cure research is currently focused on developing better treatment regimens and studying the biology of the HSV virus in order to properly understand how it works. By understanding how it works methods and treatments may be devised to properly eliminate it from an infected person.

One of the problems doctors have in formulating a cure for genital herpes is its ability to hide inside the human nervous system, remaining latent until conditions trigger an attack of herpes sores. A vital step in genital herpes cure research is the discovery by researchers from Duke University which hopes address this problem. Scientists have found the part of the viral genome that allow the herpes virus to hide during latent periods. Hopes are high that a drug can be developed to turn off this viral behavior. If successful, those infected with herpes only suffer from a single attack since treatment with antiviral medication would manage to kill off all of the herpes causing virus.

Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have also identified certain genes and enzymes which the HSV virus needs to survive. Researchers are optimistic that a drug can be found to disrupt these genes in order to provide a more effective treatment for those with herpes.

Vaccines made from the proteins on the HSV cell surface, peptides, or chains that present important targets to the immune system, and the DNA of the virus itself, are currently being tested along with topical preparations containing microbe killing compounds.

Last year, Michal Margalith, a researcher from US based biopharmaceutical company Vical, say they have developed a vaccine involving the DNA of the virus. The treatment involves injecting the patient with a circular piece of DNA called a plasmid. This plasmid programs cells to produce HSV-2 proteins. These proteins trigger an immune response allowing the immune system of the infected person to fight off the virus. Experiments have managed to trigger an immune response from mice but it may still be a long time before we see this type of DNA-based vaccine approved for human use.

While steps toward formulating a herpes cure are moving forward, scientists still feel it will be several more years before we will be able to reap the fruits of these different research efforts. Meanwhile, prevention still remains the best cure against genital herpes.