Vironika HSV research

[Hopeful heart]

This looks like a small company also doing HSV research. 

They have a grant and HSV in their pipeline

 

Development of a Small Molecule Inhibitor to Eradicate HSV Latent Infection in Neurons 

Grant: http://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R43-AI142976-01A1

Pipeline: http://www.vironika.com/pipeline

Anyone familiar with their work? 

 

[LightafterDarkness]

Nice find!

If I understand the grant correctly they propose a molecule that inhibits LAT which is what makes HSV go silent and also blocks infected neurons from destroying themselves (which is a normal way  the human body fights infection). I am a big fan of this idea since it leaves HSV with nowhere to retreat and thus allows the body to kill all of the virus as they are all left out in the open. The human body generally has no problem given killing HSV - its just its never given a chance to kill 100% of the virus. This proposal gives it such a chance. This is a great idea and would be a "full cure." Still a long way out for now

 

In the interim keep pulling for (1) Pritelivir as a "functional cure, (2) Some sort of Vaccine to protect people from infection (XVac hopefully), and (3) a full cure to come down the road either via gene therapy or something like this proposal which flushes all HSV out.

 

 

[JHenry]

2 hours ago, LightafterDarkness said:

Nice find!

If I understand the grant correctly they propose a molecule that inhibits LAT which is what makes HSV go silent and also blocks infected neurons from destroying themselves (which is a normal way  the human body fights infection). I am a big fan of this idea since it leaves HSV with nowhere to retreat and thus allows the body to kill all of the virus as they are all left out in the open. The human body generally has no problem given killing HSV - its just its never given a chance to kill 100% of the virus. This proposal gives it such a chance. This is a great idea and would be a "full cure." Still a long way out for now

 

In the interim keep pulling for (1) Pritelivir as a "functional cure, (2) Some sort of Vaccine to protect people from infection (XVac hopefully), and (3) a full cure to come down the road either via gene therapy or something like this proposal which flushes all HSV out.

 

 

I like the way you think!, thank you for sharing!   Henry

[HSV-1]

Maybe someone who understand the science more than I do can add it to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex_research#Herpes_simplex_pharmaceutical_drugs

 

I also posted this wiki link in the other thread, which likely also contains a lot of stuff that the wiki page hasn't added yet.

[MikeHerp]

On 8/28/2019 at 11:04 AM, Hopeful heart said:

This looks like a small company also doing HSV research. 

They have a grant and HSV in their pipeline

 

Development of a Small Molecule Inhibitor to Eradicate HSV Latent Infection in Neurons 

Grant: http://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R43-AI142976-01A1

Pipeline: http://www.vironika.com/pipeline

Anyone familiar with their work? 

 

GREAT FIND!  

That would really be something if they found a molecule that could disrupt LAT, whcih helps maintain HSV in its latent state.

It does raise some questions, for example, if apoptosis stops being prevented, would that mean that the infected neurons would die, and would that cause damage to the human body.

But this is really interesting.  It's another company to put on the radar.  

I also like how, in their pipeline they note that "There is growing evidence for a role of HSV1 in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease."

Seems like they are on top of the research.

[hk81]

It looks like it is proceeding:

http://www.vironika.com/news/2019/10/22/vironika-secures-phase-i-sbir-funding-from-nih-to-develop-small-molecule-inhibitors-to-eradicate-hsv-latent-infection-in-neurons

[hk81]

I'm still trying to understand what these people want to do.

They write:

"LAT is important for maintaining viral latency and confers resistance to apoptosis for latently infected neurons. The most highly conserved substructure of LAT is the stable 3' stem loop containing a non- canonical branch point sequence that prevents debranching by the cellular enzyme DBR1. Genetic studies reveal that disruption of the stem-loop and branch point structure destabilizes LAT and eliminates its functional activity

The product that ultimately results from this proposal is a small molecule inhibitor that selectively binds and disrupts the function of LAT RNA in HSV neuronal latency

We propose to target a viral non-coding RNA, LAT, expressed at high-levels in all HSV latent infection in neurons, contributing to viral gene control, neuronal cell survival, and immune evasion, and therefore, an attractive target for small molecule therapeutic intervention. "

There have been some researches on the function of LAT, using mutated HSV lacking some parts of LAT. I haven't found yet a scientific evidence that the lack of LAT can stop the infection.

This article showed that in neurons infected with HSV without some parts of LAT there were signals for apoptosis:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10688801

But at the end they write:

In addition, the ability of LAT to prevent HSV-1-induced apoptosis may be impor-tant in preventing the virus from causing extensive neuronal damage and subsequent neuronal disorders.

I do wonder if the scientists at Vironika are aware of the consequences. I do not know what to think about their research. In their proposal to NIH they boldly write:

"Development of a Small Molecule Inhibitor to Eradicate HSV Latent Infection in Neurons"

but do they really know what they are doing? Or is it just science-fiction?

Edited February 29, 2020 by hk81

[Arabicguy]

If they can disrupt latency together with antiviral to limit severity of outbreak, then thi can induce apoptosis in infected neurons. According to dr Jerome the number of infected neurons is not big maybe 100 or so. I think we might survive well without 100 neurons 

[Elephant in the room?]

I looked at this issue briefly before I understood some issues more clearly. While there are certainly limits to healing in some aspects on a case by case basis the spinal cord is generally now thought to have a lot more healing capacity than previously thought. No conclusive or definitive statements here just a tipbit I came across.