By: Neomi Heroux

Cold sores are unsightly, painful lesions. Caused by the Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1) they generally occur on the lips, in the mouth, and less commonly in the eye (ocular herpes). Millions of people suffer from the virus, and those afflicted are either having an outbreak or they are going to, because the virus lies dormant within the body, emerging at intervals to cause sores. Some of the triggers for outbreaks include stress, fever and sunlight.

The best treatment for the relief of cold sores has been the drug Acyclovir, which can help prevent or curb outbreaks, but provides only temporary and limited relief. A Duke University Medical Center team recently announced that they had found the mechanism that allowed HSV-1 to “hide” between outbreaks and may be able to use this information to find a cure.

To fight a virus, the body’s immune system has to rely on the protein chemicals produced by the virus to mark it for destruction. The herpes viruses, including cold sores and genital herpes, have been able to shut down these proteins and remain dormant for long periods before beginning to replicate again. The virus does produce a type of RNA, a single strand of genetic information copied from the DNA of the virus. In other viruses these RNAs make proteins useful to the virus, but this does not occur in herpes, and has puzzled scientists. The Duke University team studied what happened to these “latent RNAs” in mice. The scientists found that the latent RNAs were broken down into even smaller strands call microRNAs which appeared to block the production of proteins to reactivate the virus, helping to keep the virus in its dormant state.

Professor Bryan Cullen, who led the research, said, “We have provided a molecular understanding of how HSV-1 hides and then switches back and forth between the latent and active phases.” This is an important finding because unless the virus is activated, you cannot attempt to destroy it. Once the virus is activated you can treat it.

Investigations are underway by the Duke team and several biotech firms to discover the best treatments and how to deliver them. No one is promising an immediate end to suffering for those with cold sores, but the experiments now underway promise relief not only to those with cold sores, but those infected with other herpes viruses, including those that cause genital herpes and chickenpox. Eliminating chickenpox would also eliminate shingles, the painful after effect of chickenpox which affects some people.