I took Valcyte for 2 1/2 years. I had suspected infectious onset based on initial fever and symptoms, as well as chronically very high EBV, CMV, HHV-6 antibody titers. Valcyte didn’t have any effect on my ME, though I was working full-time and push-crashing all the time.
Valcyte also had this annoying symptom with me that made my strong ME wired feeling at night and insomnia much worse.
I tested that Valcyte actually was causing this worsening multiple times. Within 3 to 4 days of starting the Valcyte again, regardless of exertion, it made me much more wired and unable to sleep at all at night. Within 2 days of stopping Valcyte, the wired symptom and insomnia reduced back to my ME baseline level.
Valcyte definitely made whatever brain overexcitation and/or neuroinflammation caused by ME much worse. Though this had confused me because I knew of this 2014 paper:
Antiviral drug ganciclovir is a potent inhibitor of microglial proliferation and neuroinflammation
I only searched again recently on the topic and found this 2015 paper challenging the previous findings:
The antiviral drug ganciclovir does not inhibit microglial proliferation and activation
Valcyte also had this annoying symptom with me that made my strong ME wired feeling at night and insomnia much worse.
I tested that Valcyte actually was causing this worsening multiple times. Within 3 to 4 days of starting the Valcyte again, regardless of exertion, it made me much more wired and unable to sleep at all at night. Within 2 days of stopping Valcyte, the wired symptom and insomnia reduced back to my ME baseline level.
Valcyte definitely made whatever brain overexcitation and/or neuroinflammation caused by ME much worse. Though this had confused me because I knew of this 2014 paper:
Antiviral drug ganciclovir is a potent inhibitor of microglial proliferation and neuroinflammation
I only searched again recently on the topic and found this 2015 paper challenging the previous findings:
The antiviral drug ganciclovir does not inhibit microglial proliferation and activation
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