Photodynamic Inactivation of Herpes Virus

[chemisttree]

I once worked with a brilliant chemist who cured everyone in his very extended group of friends suffering from Herpes Simplex-1. His method was successful 100% of the time but did sometimes require several treatments (rarely)! Really amazing! He used a unique method of photodynamic therapy that involved treatment with proflavine and 5 minutes very close to the screen of a color TV. He had a very old paper that he referred to (circa 1965) that discussed the science behind it. He was asked to stop his activities since this amounted to practicing medicine without a license, but not before he had cured possibly 20-30 people. Here is a link to a recent study with references including the reference of the 1965 paper I referred to. Very interesting...

http://www.photobiology.com/photobiology2000/rodica1/index.htm

 

[berkeman]

Interesting. I've only skimmed the paper so far -- did the chemist figure out what about the CRT exposure was important? Was it the light (if so, why from a CRT? something about the phosphurs?), or maybe low-level Cerenkov radiation, or maybe the magnetic fields from the deflection yoke?

 

[chemisttree]

I suppose that it could have been any of those forms of radiation but he believed that it was the light energy itself that was responsible. He originally recommended black and white TV light for 15 minutes and later recommended color TV for only 5 minutes.

I don't know what channel he recommended...

 

[Moonbear]

How did he determine they were cured? HSV-1 can be latent for a long time without symptoms, so just being asymptomatic for a while after treating an outbreak doesn't mean they have been entirely rid of the virus. In most cases, the symptoms of an active outbreak will go away on their own anyway, so how does he know his "treatment" was doing anything at all?

*Puts on moderator hat.* Also, note that we generally do not permit discussion on non-peer-reviewed, non-published sources here. I'm going to give this a bit of leeway for discussion because the Independent Research forum on this site really doesn't cater well to biology topics, but all reading and participating should be advised this thread could be locked at any time, and reminded that anectdotal evidence is not conclusive.

 

[chemisttree]

How did he determine they were cured? HSV-1 can be latent for a long time without symptoms, so just being asymptomatic for a while after treating an outbreak doesn't mean they have been entirely rid of the virus. In most cases, the symptoms of an active outbreak will go away on their own anyway, so how does he know his "treatment" was doing anything at all?

*Puts on moderator hat.* Also, note that we generally do not permit discussion on non-peer-reviewed, non-published sources here. I'm going to give this a bit of leeway for discussion because the Independent Research forum on this site really doesn't cater well to biology topics, but all reading and participating should be advised this thread could be locked at any time, and reminded that anectdotal evidence is not conclusive.

He didn't determine if they were cured at all. They all just stopped having outbreaks. Some of the people he treated remained asymptomatic for years. These were people that had several outbreaks per year who were asymptomatic for years afterward.

As for this discussion coming from non-peer reviewed sources, I will limit my further comments to the field of photodynamic treatment of HSV-1 only. There are many peer reviewed sources of information available on the subject.

 

[Moonbear]

He didn't determine if they were cured at all. They all just stopped having outbreaks. Some of the people he treated remained asymptomatic for years. These were people that had several outbreaks per year who were asymptomatic for years afterward.

But that is typical of the infection. Early on, outbreaks can be very frequent, and then gradually become less frequent.

As for this discussion coming from non-peer reviewed sources, I will limit my further comments to the field of photodynamic treatment of HSV-1 only. There are many peer reviewed sources of information available on the subject.

Sounds good.