Cold Sores: Discovery Reveals How Stress, Illness and Even Sunburn Trigger Flareups
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Cold sores: Discovery reveals how stress, illness and even sunburn trigger flareups:
Researchers at the [University of Virginia] School of Medicine have shed light on what causes herpes simplex virus to flare up, explaining how stress, illness and even sunburn can trigger unwanted outbreaks.
[...] "Herpes simplex recurrence has long been associated with stress, fever and sunburn," said researcher Anna R. Cliffe, PhD, of UVA's Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology. "This study sheds light on how all these triggers can lead to herpes simplex-associated disease."
Once you're infected with herpes simplex virus (HSV) -- and more half of Americans are -- the virus never really goes away. Instead, it lurks inside neurons, waiting for the right moment to strike again, a process known as reactivation.
Cold sores, also known as fever blisters, are one of the most common symptoms of HSV reactivation. Recurrent reactivation in the eye leads to herpes keratitis, which, if left untreated, can result in blindness. HSV infection has also been linked to the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
Recurrences of HSV are typically associated with stress, illness or sunburn, but doctors have been uncertain exactly what causes the virus to reactivate. Cliffe and her collaborators found that when neurons harboring the virus were exposed to stimuli that induce "neuronal hyperexcitation," the virus senses this particular change and seizes its opportunity to reactivate.
[...] "A better understanding of what causes HSV to reactivate in response to a stimulus is needed to develop novel therapeutics," Cliffe said. "Ultimately, what we hope to do is target the latent virus itself and make it unresponsive to stimuli such as Interleukin 1 beta."
Journal Reference:
Sean R Cuddy, Austin R Schinlever, Sara Dochnal, et al. Neuronal hyperexcitability is a DLK-dependent trigger of herpes simplex virus reactivation that can be induced by IL-1, (DOI: 10.7554/eLife.58037)
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