microRNAs will bring herpes to the surface
American scientists have discovered the mechanism of "masking" the herpes simplex virus in the latent phase of the disease. This opens the way to the creation of fundamentally new drugs for the treatment of herpes infection.
It is known that the herpes virus is constantly present in the nerve cells of an infected person, but clinically the disease manifests itself only during the period of exacerbation, i.e. active reproduction of the pathogen. The rest of the time – the latent period – the viral genome is not reproduced, viral proteins on its matrix are not synthesized, there are no manifestations of the disease, and the virus itself is resistant to any therapy. The only molecular product of the virus during this period is a latent–stage RNA transcript (latency associated transcript RNA, LAT RNA), whose function has been unknown until now.
Investigating the functioning of the herpes virus in the latent phase of the disease in mice, scientists from Duke University in North Carolina found that LAT RNA quickly breaks down into smaller nucleotides called microRNAs. They block the production of a protein that activates the reproduction of the virus. Periods of exacerbation occur when, under the influence of stressful factors (for example, hypothermia) on the human host body, the virus begins to produce more information RNA than microRNA can block, and protein synthesis resumes.
Currently, a group of researchers is testing a new drug that binds microRNAs in order to transfer the virus to an active state when it is treatable with antiviral drugs, for example, acyclovir.
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