Hi all,
I recently ran across an explanation that Herpes (HSV) encodes a protein ICP47 -- or "infected cell protein 47". I like to call this one the "immune cloaking protein". It allows Herpes to stay dormant in cells.
During an outbreak, the virus replicates rapidly and there is considerable evidence of an immune response and anti-virals like Valtrex can help too.
But the question is -- can one "uncloak" the virus, allowing the body (perhaps with the help of Valtrex) to fight it full time, reducing the number of cells Herpes lies dormant in?
I ran a simulation of more than 100 vitamins and drugs against ICP47 to find those most likely to interact with it (for better or worse).
I figure that those that increase the cloaking of ICP47 will have negligible effect on the symptoms of Herpes, but those that inhibit ICP47 would result in an outbreak as the hidden cells are discovered.
So -- here's a somewhat redacted list of my top compounds. Have any of these caused an outbreak when you started taking it? Or otherwise substantially increased the time between outbreaks?
Some Top Matches (each should have an approximately independent binding to ICP47):
Vitamin E, Astaxanthin, DHA, Ubiquinol, Cholecalciferol, Methadone (for the hard core!), Amlodipine, Sertraline
Other interesting matches (in the top 50):
Carnosine, Lysine, Metoprolol, and Warfarin

The idea that D3 "exposes" herpes to the immune system seems particularly attractive given than UV light can stimulate an outbreak... Could it be that UV light undoes the cloaking, T-cells attack the infected cells spreading virus in the neighborhood further generating an immune response? Another theory is that Vit. D3 induces immune tolerance, allowing Herpes to multiply - so it isn't "uncloaking" anything at all.
Maybe Vit D3+Valtrex can reduce the cloaked viral population? Maybe not.
I'd really like to know if the above fits (or doesn't) with anyone's experience with Herpes.. Thanks!
(should probably try to publish this in a journal somewhere... but it is not my day job)
- notadoc edit: added line breaks