I have herpes! And I bet you do too!
Hey guys. Julia here for DNews
Yup it’s true, I’m just one of millions of people who have herpes type 1. I’ve had
cold sores on my lips plenty of times in my life. They’re painful, gross, and unfortunately
incurable. It’s caused by a virus and spread by contact. A very common virus. Nearly 2/3s
of everyone on this planet has one of two strains [[of what]] that usually causes painful
and irritating sores on the lips and genitals. And some estimates say as many as 90% of adults
have some strain of it. While they are 8 different strains of the virus, most people are familiar
and infected with type 1 and type 2. There are other types of herpes as well. Type cause
the chicken pox, mono or other less well known diseases.
Human herpes simplex virus (HSV) is ancient. According to a study published in the journal
Molecular Biology and Evolution, the HSV-1 strain is over 6 million years old. The other
strain is significantly younger, HSV-2 was contracted in humans from Chimpanzees over
1.6 million years ago. Which means it was a part of our lives before we were even human.
It’s a strong sucker. A study published in the journal of the American Chemical Society
found that the DNA in a virus body is tightly packed and under high pressure. This pressure
allows it to be powerfully injected into a host’s cells. It then turns the cell into
a virus making factory, turning out more copies of itself.
Since the virus never goes away, herpes is in a constant battle with your immune system.
Most of the time your immune system is winning and the virus is latent and dormant in your
nerve cells. Well… maybe not entirely dormant according to research from the Australian
National University. Researchers found that the virus is actually pretty active, but our
immune cells “are constantly pushing it down."
And since HSV is an old virus, it’s evolved some tricks of its own. HSV-1 actually rearranges
our telomeres according to a study published in the journal Cell Reports. Telomeres are
the caps on our DNA, often compared to the plastic tips on your shoelaces. They serve
pretty much the same function, they keep the strands of DNA from fraying. The virus attacks
telomeres in a few ways, but basically it degrades a telomere protein called TPP1. When
this protein is inhibited, the virus is better able to replicate itself.
And this is the good news bad news part of the story. In bad news, you can still spread
the virus even if you’re not showing symptoms. One study published in JAMA found that 20%
of people with symptoms were “shedding” the virus, and even 10% of those without symptoms
“shed” the virus.
But, there might be a good side to herpes. One study published in the journal Nature
found that it offered protection from serious diseases like the plague.. at least in mice.
Basically the virus makes your immune system make more of a protein hormone called inter-fear-on
gamma (interferon). This sets your system on high alert, so your immune is ready to
attack other invaders. In this case, it protects against bacterial infections like the plague
and food poisoning,
But just in case you’re ready to give up the benefits and the sores, there might be
some hope. There’s a lot of research on the herpes virus, and a lot of potential for
cures or treatments. The more common types of drugs like acyclovir tend to focus on the
stage when the virus is multiplying in the skin. A tricky place since the virus can often
build resistance to treatment at that stage. But scientists are working on that.
Like one study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found
that the herpes virus goes through a kind of bottleneck in the body as moves from it’s
dormant state in nerve cells into skin cells. Only a few cells make the harrowing journey,
and once they’re in the skin cells, usually in the lip, that they multiply. So scientists
are looking to target this transitional period since the virus might be more susceptible
to drug treatments.
So scientists keep working on drugs that work at earlier stages, like one drug tested in
a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine used an epigenetic approach. The
drug they studied exists already and they found it blocked a protein called LSD1 which
works in early stages of the virus and can turn genes on and off. By blocking the protein,
the drug kept the virus latent.
So yeah, that’s herpes. You probably have it, you can still spread it when you’re
not showing symptoms, there’s no cure, but there are some decent treatment options. While
viral STIs can’t be cured, they can be prevented with proper sex education, practicing safe
sex, and some can be prevented by vaccines, like HPV! Wanna know more about the HPV vaccine?
Check out this video right here.
Alright guys curious about other STIs? Ask your questions down below and we might just
answer in a future video!