Has A Vaccine For Genital Herpes Been Discovered?
In an inspiring bit of news on the fight against genital herpes, one of the world’s top research corporations just revealed that it might be close to developing a vaccine for the HSV-2 virus responsible for the STD. U.S. medical firm Agenus Inc. provided findings from its current research last month showing that its developmental drug, HerpV, successfully stopped the appearance of herpes symptoms in men and women who participated. Even more impressively, the vaccine also seemed to block the virus’ ability to implant itself in another host.
Why Does HerpV Work?
Without delving too deeply into advanced biology, HerpV succeeds by stimulating an immune system reaction that enhances cells’ capacity to spot the herpes virus. This is accomplished by injecting what is known as a “heat shock protein”, or HSP, into the blood. Once in the body, the HSP attaches itself onto the exterior of healthy cells, consequently forcing infected cells to become incompatible and incapable of attaching themselves (i.e., replicate).
By blocking the HSV-2 virus from duplicating, HerpV essentially renders it incapable of causing outbreaks in existing sufferers and non-contagious to uninfected people. This is certainly an exciting idea for the approximated 16% of the citizenry currently afflicted with genital herpes.
How Notable Were Agenus’ Results?
Over what was referred to as a Phase 1 study, 100% of herpes-infected patients who were administered a HerpV shot demonstrated a significant elevation in antigen-targeted cell immune mechanism response to the virus. In common lingo, this indicates that the T cells in every one of the study’s participants became immune to HSV-2 immediately after being administered HSP.
Dr. David Koelle, a medical professor for the University of Washington School of Medicine, offered the data on behalf of Agenus and gave the ensuing statement, “I believe these data represent the first finding of their kind in humans in genital herpes treatments.” The physician went on to say, “The potential use for a therapeutic vaccine candidate such as HerpV is in managing outbreaks and ultimately disease transmission in patients with genital herpes.”
Could This Indicate That A Vaccine Is Just Around The Corner?
The implications of these primary findings on HerpV are immense. Dr. Koelle acknowledged this fact thusly, “Being able to impact and possibly decrease the spread of genital herpes would be a huge step in stemming this epidemic that affects one in six adults in the U.S.” With all of the excitement that this announcement generated, a logical question was “So, how close is the HerpV vaccine to being released to the public?”
Although it may not be very far off, it is not prepared to that the vaccine will be made accessible to present genital herpes patients anytime in the immediate future. Agenus is just now initiating Phase 2 of its research on the drug’s usefulness and, if it proves successful, will then have to enter the FDA-approval program before launching the vaccine. As this process can sometimes take years, the fight to wipe out herpes symptoms in men and women may not be as close to its end as all of us wish to believe.
Devin Brindinshire’s site www.herpessymptoms-inmen.com covers a wide range of herpes topics, including causes of herpes. Look for future articles that answer such difficult herpes-related questions as “what does herpes look like?”