Quote:
Originally Posted by audiowizard
So what possibility is there for destroying those specific nerves, and thereby eliminating the herpes residing in the nerves?
|
An interesting and straightforward question.
I suspect that merely “killing” affected nerve tissue within the body (in situ) wouldn’t be effective, because even very toxic attacks on tissue effect individual cells at a different rate. Unless the attack on the nerve tissue is very specific (for example, carried by a virus or special-purpose immune cell), it will also kill nearby immune cells, triggering an outbreak of the herpes virus that would permit it to spread to neighboring, unaffected nerve cells.
It might be possible to Microsurgically remove the affected nerve tissue, taking the herpes virus DNA residing in the nerve cell nuclei with it. Followed by a massive flood of directly injected antiviral medicine to kill any “free floating” virus, this might be able to completely cure the infection.
From a medical efficacy perspective, however, it’s always important to ask if the cure is worse than the disease. Excising large amounts of nerve tissue is usually significantly debilitating, causing loss of sensation and motor function, often over large portions of the patient’s body. Loss of sensation in the genitals is of special concern to most patients, especially since one of the major reasons they want to cure their herpes infections is to be able to better enjoy sex. Loss of sensation or motor control in and of the mouth, another common site of
HSV infection, can be seriously disfiguring, and impair the patient’s ability to eat and drink normally, posing serious long-term health risks.
Given the current state of the medical arts, I suspect that the “radical eradication” therapies about which audiowizard and I speculate would be attractive only to patients who suffer such painful and frequent outbreaks that they are debilitated or so stressed that their quality of life is intolerably poor. People with compromised immune systems, such as transplant patients on long-term immunosuppressants and HIV/AIDS sufferers might also be candidates. Others will likely prefer conventional antiviral treatments. As the state of the art improves, and it becomes possible to routinely regrow nerve tissue, these approaches may become attractive and viable.
It’s worth noting that any therapy, allopathic or alternative, that generally strengthens the immune system has the potential to suppress a HSV infection to the point that a patient is asymptomatic for decades. Though even asymptomatic patient need to be careful not to spread the virus to uninfected partners, there’s reason to believe (with less than complete certainty) that if both partners have strong immune systems, the chance of spreading the virus is very small, even via unprotected sex.
----------------
Moderator: Computers and Technology; Medical Science; Science Projects and Homework; Philosophy of Science; Physics and Mathematics; Environmental Studies
