Two years after scientists showed that an experimental gene therapy for herpes can knock out most latent infection in mice, new tests reveal that it also suppresses the amount of transmissible virus shed by the treated animals.
It is encouraging news from researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, where laboratory studies aimed at curing herpes simplex virus infections have continued despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Drs. Keith Jerome and Martine Aubert, the Hutch virologists leading the research effort, report the treatment dramatically reduced or even eliminated viral shedding in treated mice compared to controls, an important milestone that the scientists also hope to achieve if the experimental therapy is eventually proven safe enough to test in humans.
“If you ask people living with herpes what they care a
