The new PRV-101 vaccine in development protects against coxsackievirus B1 to B5. In future, this could help prevent several chronic diseases

[Hip]

A new vaccine in development code named PRV-101 which protects against infection with coxsackievirus B1 to B5 has been demonstrated effective in a phase 1 clinical trial. If this vaccine eventually makes it onto the vaccine schedule, it might help prevent several chronic diseases that have been linked to coxsackievirus B, including ME/CFS and type 1 diabetes.

Persistent enteroviruses such as coxsackievirus B and echovirus that can live long-term in the body have been linked to numerous chronic diseases, including:

• type 1 diabetes [1]
• ME/CFS [1]
• chronic myocarditis / pericarditis [1]
• dilated cardiomyopathy [1]
• heart valve disease [1]
• Parkinson's disease [1]
• amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a motor neuron disease) [1] [2]
• Sjogren's syndrome [1]
• ileocecal Crohn's disease [1]

Enterovirus infection of the heart is also found in 40% of people who die of a sudden heart attack. [1] This link between enterovirus infection and heart attacks is significant, as in the US alone, there are about 610,000 heart attacks each year. [1]

 

[Wayne]

Enterovirus infection of the heart is also found in 40% of people who die of a sudden heart attack.

I guess the question that comes to mind is whether 100% of people come in contact with some kind of enterovirus. It seems that's likely the case given how ubiquitous they are. If that's the case, then how is that so many people end up with it affecting their heart, but apparently many others are able to avoid that. My best guess is it comes down to--for a large part anyway--on the health and resilience of the immune system.

 

[Hip]

If you look at coxsackievirus B prevalence in infants, one study found that even at this early age, 5% already had coxsackievirus B or echovirus in their body (enterovirus B species).

Given that these viruses can form persistent infections in multiple organs, including the brain, my view is that even if they do not trigger an overt chronic disease in a person, their constant presence in the body tissues and organs may still have subtle health-degrading effects in the individual, both for physical and mental health.

And persistent enterovirus B is just one viral species that infects children; there are also dozens of others. The human body is riddled with chronic viral, bacteria and protozoal infections that may subtly or substantially degrade our health.

There is even some new research that has observed a brain microbiome in humans: this is a preliminary finding, yet to be validated; but if it turns out to be true, then even the brains of healthy people are not sacrosanct; they may also be filled with an array of microbes, which may have subtle mental health-degrading effects.

I think in the distant future, when we have developed advanced technological means to prevent our bodies becoming infected with all these health-damaging microbes in circulation, we may enter a golden era of great physical and mental health. But until such time, we remain burdened with a plethora of physical and mental diseases, as well as subtle sub-clinical ailments, that may be primarily due to microbes.

Evolutionary biologist Professor Paul W. Ewald and physicist and anthropologist Dr Gregory Cochran subscribe to this microbial ill health theory: they posit that many chronic diseases and cancers whose causes are currently unknown may, in the future, turn out to be driven by the damaging effects arising from persistent microbial infections living in the body's tissues.