Fifty year Old Heart Failure Drug May Be Effective Herpesvirus Fighter

[Cort]

What a remarkable finding this is...perhaps an entirely new class of herpes virus drugs -all from a 50 year old drug that used to treat heart failure!

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/307852.php

It comes from the University of Utah as well - right up Dr. Bateman's and Dr. Light's way. The researchers found it by screening drugs for herpesvirus inhibiting factors.

Spironolactone blocked infection by the Epstein-Barr virus by blocking a protein the virus uses in the later stages of herpesvirus infection.

Dr. Swaminathan - chief of infectious diseases at University of Utah Health Care and professor of internal medicine, commented:

"It's remarkable that a drug we have used safely in the clinic for over 50 years is also an effective EBV inhibitor. It goes to show how basic research can reveal things we would never have found otherwise."

"The researchers envisage SPR becoming a template for a new class of drug to treat all herpesviruses. They believe it can be modified to work as an antiviral without adverse effects, and that it can help in the fight against drug-resistant infections."

Expect to see a bigger blog on this on Simmaron...

 

[Remy]

It would have to be modified because spironolactone would be a nightmare for most people with POTS due to lowering of aldosterone.

 

[Cort]

It would have to be modified because spirinolactone would be a nightmare for most people with POTS due to lowering of aldosterone.

How do you know all this stuff? You are like a walking encyclopedia

 

[Remy]

How do you know all this stuff? You are like a walking encyclopedia

I have a lot of time to read, unfortunately.

 

[IrisRV]

I have a lot of time to read, unfortunately.

And a much greater ability than I have to process what you read.

 

[San Diego]

I saw this yesterday, and naturally started digging for the dosages required to kill EBV. Has anyone seen that? Maybe it’s another low dose thing, and we could avoid the nasty side effects?

I’d hate to risk upsetting the potassium/sodium balance of this fragile system of mine. Once I saw that, my plan to acquire spironolactone came to a screeching halt.

@Cort If you remember, I’d really appreciate a link when the Simmaron blog is up. Thx

 

[Cort]

I have a lot of time to read, unfortunately.

That gave me another good laugh! Thanks for helping to start my day off with a chuckle...

 

[Cort]

I saw this yesterday, and naturally started digging for the dosages required to kill EBV. Has anyone seen that? Maybe it’s another low dose thing, and we could avoid the nasty side effects?

I’d hate to risk upsetting the potassium/sodium balance of this fragile system of mine. Once I saw that, my plan to acquire spironolactone came to a screeching halt.

@Cort If you remember, I’d really appreciate a link when the Simmaron blog is up. Thx

Will do...They hope that this drug will become a template for a new class of drugs; hopefully derivatives can be modified which to not cause this problem...

The researchers envisage SPR becoming a template for a new class of drug to treat all herpesviruses. They believe it can be modified to work as an antiviral without adverse effects, and that it can help in the fight against drug-resistant infections.

 

[sasha]

i don't know whether this news makes me want to laugh or cry. i was on this for a few years pre-ME/CFS for acne. i only stopped taking it to try accutane (after hemming and hawing for years over whether it was worth the risks to try). a few weeks of being on accutane, had sudden onset of extreme fatigue, joint pain, you know the story. thought i was just having a very bad reaction to accutane. doctor didn't really take my symptoms seriously (as being a side effect of accutane or otherwise), since my run of the mill bloodwork was all normal (and consistent w/ pre-accutane labs).

pre-ME/CFS i was pretty active and didn't have fatigue issues. i've had a bunch of other issues that seemed random and unrelated pre-ME/CFS, but looking back, sometimes makes me feel that having ME/CFS shouldn't feel that surprising b/c there were a lot of inflammation, allergy, immune system type issues. eczema, staph infections / bad case of mono in teens, over a decade of chronic strep throat before getting tonsils out in my 20s, frequent pneumonia / bronchitis in more recent years, developing asthma and chronic hives in my 20s, chronic acne and folliculitis, IC, GI issues (which, strangely, mostly cleared up during my short time on accutane), developing allergic reactions to things that never used to be an issue (multi-vitamin, different supplements, anesthetic). maybe my few years on spironolactone was just helping to delay the inevitable?

 

[Remy]

a few weeks of being on accutane

It's amazing how many of us have taken Accutane. I took it when I first went to college and all of a sudden my skin went nuts. I regret that decision now because my skin was really not that bad at all. But I was very vain.

I think that it inhibits HSP70 and causes an unfolded protein response.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9371525

 

[sasha]

really? i've seen a few comments here and there about accutane in other forums/blogs (from a quick google search, about all i can process). but hard to get a sense of how prevalent (in particular, for a sudden onset shortly after starting accutane vs those who stayed on it for a full course). my dr pressed me to stay on it, despite my complaints. i don't remember exactly how long i took it, but i definitely didn't even make it through a full two months b/c of how bad my symptoms were.

i didn't recall seeing much content on potential link when i last searched around on this. but then again, those were the early stages and i was struggling to understand anything i read about ME/CFS generally. i just did a quick search and see that there were some informative posts about glycine n-methyltransferase becoming hyperactive as a result of accutane, which i guess is tied to glutathione and methylation cycle issues.

when i first started seeing a CFS specialist, they did put me on l-methylfolate and identified other supplements to start taking for these issues. unfortunately had a lot of weird allergic reactions to different supplements (multivitamins and individual vitamins). k-pax protocol are one of the few supplements i haven't had an allergic reaction to. but i guess this is a good reminder that i should start trying again to do more to build up a methylation protocol...

i hear you on the vanity comment. my acne prob wasn't bad enough to warrant using accutane either. but multiple drs kept asking if i wanted to try it, and i saw friends use it with little side effects. i thought at worst it would be 6-12 months of bad looking super dry skin, making me a bit self-conscious and more inclined to stay home and read a book during that time, rather than hanging out with friends. instead, years later i can barely get out of bed or read a book. but, hey, now i have nice skin and don't have to worry as much about sun damage . results totally not worth it!