Harvard figures out cure for herpes in mice

Great news coming out of Harvard this morning as it appears that they’ve found a cure for herpes in mice! Yayyyyy.

Dearest Minnie, Good news!

Harvard Medical School researchers have succeeded in developing a topical treatment that, in mice, wipes out herpes virus, one of the most intractable sexually transmitted human diseases.

Judy Lieberman, professor of pediatrics and a senior investigator at the Immune Disease Institute, has overseen the development of the treatment that uses RNA interference, or RNAi, to disable key genes necessary for herpes virus transmission. That cripples the virus in a molecular two-punch knockout, simultaneously disabling its ability to replicate, as well as the host cell’s ability to take up the virus.

What’s more, the treatment is just as effective when applied anywhere from one week prior to a few hours after exposure to the virus. In that sense, the basic biology of this prophylactic enables a real-world utility.

“People have been trying to make a topical agent that can prevent transmission — a microbicide — for many years,” says Lieberman. “But one of the main obstacles for this is compliance. One of the attractive features of the compound we developed is that it creates in the tissue a state that’s resistant to infection, even if applied up to a week before sexual exposure. This aspect has a real practicality to it. If we can reproduce these results in people, this could have a powerful impact on preventing transmission.”

This is great news if you have embarrassing herpes that has crippled you in both social and sexual settings. It’s even better news if you’ve been f’ing really slutty mice with no regard for their well-being or that of their sexual partners.

It’s pretty amazing what science can do. Did you know that they have other crazy methods of keeping you from getting sexual diseases like these little latex coverings called con…domes? And that you can test for the AIDS virus instead of just losing weight rapidly, shrugging your shoulders, and continuing to insert your contaminated fluids into other people randomly on the street? It’s true! I’m as stunned as you are, I’m sure!

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