Herpes drug can help control HIV, new study finds

Herpes, an oral drug widely used to restrain the virus that causes genital herpes, seems to decrease the rates of HIV in men who would not have genital herpes, based on a study by researchers in the National Institutes of Health, Emory University, Case Western Reserve University as well as the Civic Association of Health and Education in Lima, Peru.

The research is the first to demonstrate the drug will not need the existence of herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV2) to curb HIV in patients. The research demonstrates that HIV levels are likely reduced by the drug by interfering with the reproductive machines of HIV.

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The researchers registered 18 HIV-infected individuals, none of whom was infected with HSV2, and treated them. Two times a day, half of the subjects took valacyclovir as well as the other half received a placebo. After fourteen days, the placebo group received valacyclovir as well as another group received a placebo. When valacyclovir was taken by the subjects, their blood HIV amounts decreased significantly.

"This study builds on our previously published work on the effect of acyclovir on HIV-1.

A study by the exact same research team in 2008 revealed that acyclovir suppresses HIV in lab cultures of human tissues that have been infected with several types of herpes viruses. Valacyclovir, which will be structurally much like acyclovir, is converted to acyclovir within the body and remains in the blood more.

The primary writers of the paper are Andrea Lisco and Christophe Vanpouille, both with NICHD.