Posted on 05/05/2005 8:47:59 AM PDT by blam
Licorice ingredient ferrets out herpes
Nathan Seppa
A compound in licorice homes in on lab-grown cells infected with a herpes virus and induces them to self-destruct, a new study finds. These results suggest that a drug based on the compound could seek and destroy herpes viruses hiding in people's bodies. Current antiherpes drugs attack the virus only when it's causing symptoms.
The virus in the new study is Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), which causes skin and lymph cancers. The researchers suspect that the gene responsible for KSHV's capacity to hide out is latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA).
Researchers at New York University ran lab tests on white blood cells, some of which were infected with the herpes virus. Exposing the infected cells to the licorice ingredient, glycyrrhizic acid, shuts down LANA. That starts a chain reaction of biochemical changes in the white blood cells, leading to their suicide and the virus' death. The uninfected cells showed no detrimental effects from glycyrrhizic acid, the researchers report in the March Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Despite these results, simply eating licorice is unlikely to purge a herpes virus from a person's system, says study coauthor Ornella Flore. Most of the glycyrrhizic acid in licorice is probably degraded in a person's stomach, she says.
To develop a treatment, Flore suggests, researchers could inject glycyrrhizic acid into animals previously infected with viruses and determine which viruses it can ferret out, how potent the drug is, and—if the results are promising—what dose would be needed in people.
Katie Holms cold sore ping!
Licorice, Ferrets, and Herpes.
There are 3 words you don't see connected very often.
More good news for the Clintons.
Herpes BUMP LOL
I'm glad I don't have herpes.
I hate licorice.
I'd be interested to see whether this acid works on other virii. At the very least, it should revolutionize the cold-sore prevention industry.
"More good news for the Clintons."
Now that is funny!
This is fairly good news as far as I am concerned. Not all Herpes viruses are caused by sexual contact. Herpes Zoster which unfortunately I fall prey to a couple of times a year is from the chicken pox virus, which can lay dormant in the body for 20, 30 years or more and then reappear. I happen to be afflicted with an unusual form of the virus...Herpes Zoster Otitis, which attacks only my left ear approximately every six months or so.....It is not a pleasant thing when it occurs.......I am sure you don't want to know the details or symptoms..
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again the rat was dead and the ratman was slipping the money into his pocket and spitting to clear his mouth.“That’s what they makes likcerish out of,” he said. “Rat’s blood is what the big factories and the chocolate-people use to make lickerish.”
Again the relish, the wet-lipped, lip-smacking relish as he spoke the words, the throaty richness of his voice and the thick syrupy way he pronounced the word lickerish.
“No,” he said, “There’s nothin wrong with a drop of rat’s blood.”
“Don’t talk so absolutely disgusting,” Claud told him.
“Ah! But that’s it, you see. You eaten it many a time. Penny sticks and lickerish bootlaces is all made from rat’s blood.”
“We don’t want to hear about it, thank you.”
“Boiled up, it is, in great cauldrons, bubblin and steamin and men stirrin it with long poles. That’s one of the big secrets of the chocolate-makin factories, and no one knows about it -- no one except the ratters supplyin the stuff.”
.
-- Roald Dahl, The Ratcatcher.
Good news for Robin Williams.
I was wondering if this ingredient may work on other viruses?
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For 26 years I have taken 250 mg. each of BHT and BHA daily. Both are food preservatives on the GRAS list. My objective is life extension (works great on lab rats). However, a side benefit is that these fat soluble substances also modify the fatty surface of various viruses thus allowing the immune system to recognize and attack them. Before I began this regimen I had serious problems with a couple of viruses. No symptoms for 26 years. If I am still here in 30 years I will conclude that the life extension experiment was also successful.
I like licorice, maybe I'll start snacking on it more.
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