Bourne N, Bernstein D I, Stanberry L R
Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1999 Nov;43(11):2685-8. doi: 10.1128/AAC.43.11.2685.
Neuropharmacologic agents able to disrupt normal virus-neuron interactions may provide an alternative strategy for the treatment of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections. We have previously shown that prophylactic treatment with capsaicin, a natural compound that alters function in sensory neurons, can protect guinea pigs against cutaneous HSV disease, even though the compound has no direct antiviral activity. Here we have examined the ability of civamide, the cis isomer of capsaicin, to interfere with HSV disease. We show that, even when the onset of treatment was delayed until after intravaginal virus challenge, primary genital skin disease severity was significantly reduced. In addition, animals treated during primary infection subsequently experienced a long-lasting reduction in recurrent disease. Civamide treatment during latent infection also significantly reduced recurrent disease, although for a shorter period. Further a single weekly treatment with civamide during latent infection was sufficient to reduce recurrent disease, indicating that an infrequent suppressive maintenance therapy might be possible.
能够破坏正常病毒与神经元相互作用的神经药理学药物可能为治疗单纯疱疹病毒（HSV）感染提供一种替代策略。我们之前已经表明，用辣椒素进行预防性治疗，辣椒素是一种能改变感觉神经元功能的天然化合物，即使该化合物没有直接的抗病毒活性，也能保护豚鼠免受皮肤HSV疾病的侵害。在此，我们研究了辣椒素的顺式异构体西伐米特干扰HSV疾病的能力。我们发现，即使治疗开始时间推迟到阴道内病毒攻击之后，原发性生殖器皮肤疾病的严重程度也会显著降低。此外，在原发性感染期间接受治疗的动物随后复发性疾病出现了长期减少。在潜伏感染期间进行西伐米特治疗也显著减少了复发性疾病，尽管持续时间较短。此外，在潜伏感染期间每周进行一次西伐米特治疗就足以减少复发性疾病，这表明可能进行不频繁的抑制性维持治疗。
