It’s not too much to say that if successful, the Pridgen antiviral trial for Fibromyalgia would be a paradigm changer.
Turning a difficult to treat ‘central nervous system disorder’ into a treatable (hopefully) herpesvirus infection disorder would be an amazing shift and it’s not surprising that excitement about the results are high. Just as we thought they were going to be released, however, the lines went dead.
Now Dr. Pridgen gives us a brief overview of the results, tells us when they will be released and discusses plans for the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to follow in a blog on Simmaron Rising
If he needs a guinea pig for the CFS/ME tests, sign me up.
Getting patients is the most expensive part of clinical trials….I imagine he would love to have you.
I’ll too be a guinea pig. I’ll happily fly and pay for a hotel for as many days, weeks, months, as long as it takes!!
Hello Cort
As you know I am a skeptic of viral involvement in CFS (beyond an initial triggering role).
This research is interesting. It could be that the antiviral he’s using is working in a way that’s not related to infection. For example, this Stanford research shows that gancicloivr is a potent inhibitor of microglia activation and neuroinflammation:
http://jem.rupress.org/content/211/2/189.short?rss=1
Isn’t that something …Thanks
I’ve contacted Stanford on this.
This could be big.
Pridgen is using an anti-viral / anti-herpes drug PLUS an anti-inflammatory. So if the antiviral drug’s effectiveness relates more to neuroinflammation, then the drug combo may be whacking neuroinflammation.
I’ll put my money on this being a successful treatment, but not because its anti-viral.
Fingers crossed
Agreed.
Antivirals and COX2 inhibitors have a wise
range of effects. You may be targeting, but
that doesn’t mean the drugs will not directly
and indirectly initiate different responses and
processes.
As for the microglial inhibiting, that’s one thing
I’ve been recently pondering too.
Duffy found the HSV1 in patients guts to be
mutated, thus being able to persist.
Furthermore, as others have said, Pridgen
sounds VERY confident of the validity of his claims.
So for now, it is more important that we can treat this
rather than know the exact cause.
That can come later.
More mutated herpesviruses – Glazer and Lerner think the same thing about EBV. Chia thinks the same thing about enteroviruses and I believe other think HHV-6 viruses are different in ME/CFS….
Fascinating stuff Juujii – thanks for passing it on. 🙂
No surprise to me. After a year on antivirals and LDN, I stopped for a week as I needed to know if valtrex was the cause of my severe dry eye. Turns out it’s not. But within 5 days of stopping Valtrex, I have white blobs on my tonsils, my sleep has dramatically changed and is appalling. My head is foggy, I need a midday sleep again, I am weak, in pain and not thirsty and I can’t retain water even when I drink it. Anti vitals may not be a cure, but they have greatly improved my quality of life. OI has not yet come back but I need no more convincing and will be back on the anti virals tomorrow. Thanks Cort for all your time and hard work. It is certainly appreciated.
It didn’t take long! That’s really something – good luck!