I had read years ago that all the herpes viruses emit RNA strands into the nucleus upon initial infection and conversion of the cell into a "provirus."
This RNA serves to keep the virus latent and quiet, perhaps for years. Only when this suppressive RNA is washed out of the nucleus does replication begin.
The idea was to remove all of this RNA everywhere in a controlled manner while administering acyclovir or another antiviral. I don't know what inaccessible resovoirs remain for the herpes family. The brain would be particularly hard to reach.
Such a treatment might also trigger shingles, mono, and ks all at once if it was too widely targeted or if the antiviral wasn't strong enough.
Re:Link Between Alzheimer’s and Herpes
by yakshaving_jgt on Saturday July 14, 2018 @02:21PM
(#17531566)
It's pretty crazy that Chip Clark would even suggest anyone should spend $150mm on GEN-003 — a subunit vaccine (which the late Prof. Halford explained is unlikely to move the needle on HSV treatment due to lack of antigenic breadth) — instead of spending $20mm on AuRx — a live-attenuated (IIRC) vaccine which has proven more effective than GEN-003 in Phase II trials.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262422871_Antigenic...
Actually, there's quite a lot we can do, and relatively cheaply, too: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-we-still-dont-hav... :
However, Clark said a phase III trial would have cost $150 million and taken three years. In the end, the company’s board and investors were “unwilling to take on the investment.”
"We" are just choosing not to do it.