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Phase III trial of antiviral + antinflammatory combo

Little Bluestem

All Good Things Must Come to an End
Messages
4,930
I must say, I am a little alarmed that Pridgen in his patents for this treatment refer to it as a treatment for "functional somatic syndromes" (in the title of the patent).
An Anti-viral and an NSAID to treat functional somatic sydrome? :rolleyes::eek:
 

Little Bluestem

All Good Things Must Come to an End
Messages
4,930
I had minimal relief from pain with the Celebrex. The addition of Valtrex resulted in 90% relief of pain and disability for several days at the beginning of treatment.
Interesting that the addition of an anti-viral increased the effectiveness of the pain med.
 

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
I think the HIV paper quoted earlier in the thread might be even more promising than the Pridgen paper, as it seems to suggest a mechanism (LPS causing Cox-2, which then allows herpes virus re-activation) that could link the work of those specialists who focus mainly on bacteria (KDM, Horowitz...) with those who focus mainly on viruses (Lerner, Montoya, Pridgen...). Of course the increase in LPS then needs to be explained, which I guess is where the gut (KDM, Lipkin) comes in...I would like someone smarter than me to tell me where auto-immunity might fit into this (I read the latest KDM paper, but I'm not scientifically literate enough to understand it). That would only leave the trigger, which seems to be HIV in the paper mentioned above, but in ME/CFS could be anything (virus, bacteria, some other mechanism?) that causes immune dysregulation.
 

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
Oops, reading it again the paper says that the increase in COX-2 causes immune activation, not the conditions for the reactivation of herpes viruses. Hopefully Duffy and others will be able to show how COX-2 and herpes viruses work together.
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Oops, reading it again the paper says that the increase in COX-2 causes immune activation, not the conditions for the reactivation of herpes viruses. Hopefully Duffy and others will be able to show how COX-2 and herpes viruses work together.

This is not an entirely unknown teritory :)

COX-2 plays multiple roles in KSHV latent gene expression, which themselves are powerful mediators of cytokine induction, anti-apoptosis, cell survival and viral genome maintainence, effective inhibition of COX-2 via well-characterized clinically approved COX-2 inhibitors could potentially be used in treatment to control latent KSHV infection ...

http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000777
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
And not only KSHV but other herpes viruses too

PGE2 synthesis impairment, through inhibition of the COX-2 enzyme, negatively affects CMV growth, suggesting that betaherpesviruses replication, such as that of HHV-6 and CMV, are influenced by eicosanoid production. Several studies (cited above) including this one suggest that PGE2 likely contributes to viral pathogenesis through several pathways. Detailed experiments using COX-knockout mice are warranted and should provide valuable information on the precise role of prostaglandins on viral growth and virally induced immunosuppression....

Inhibition of cyclooxygenase 2 blocks human cytomegalovirus replication.

and

Inhibition of cyclooxygenase activity blocks cell-to-cell spread of human cytomegalovirus.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19033472

Because direct cell-to-cell spread likely contributes importantly to pathogenesis of the virus, we suggest that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs might help to control human cytomegalovirus infections in conjunction with other anti-viral treatments.
 
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msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
Thanks Natasa, I thought there might have already been some work done in this area. The second paper also seems to suggest one way that Omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial. This table from Wikipedia shows that Omega-6 leads to PGE2 synthesis, while the competing Omega-3 doesn't:

440px-EFA_to_Eicosanoids.svg.png
 
Messages
2
I had thought that Celebrex and Vioxx caused severe cardiac problems (in some patients, of course not in all!) and that was why Vioxx was pulled off the U.S. market? For me, it would be too big of a risk to try Celebrex and pain is not one of my major issues. Are there other meds that can take the place of Celebrex and combine with Famvir (which I am already taking?)

Yep, selective COX-2 inhibitors can double risk of heart attack and/or stroke for those who've already had a heart attack and/or have coronary heart disease.
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
Is Mobic (meloxicam) still available? I was under the impression that it was one of the safer COX2 inhibitors and took it for about a year around 2012. I didn't have any side effects and it had some positive effects as well. I can't say that it was any more effective than ibuprofen though.