Did Anti-Herpes Drug Ease Long COVID Symptoms?

At last count, over 600,000,000 people worldwide have caught COVID-19. In the US, the number is around 100,000,000.  We have seen a variety of estimates about the incidence of long COVID. In general, they range from 10% to 30% of those infected. A large study published in JAMA Network Open (Oct. 27, 2022) reported that “…15% of US adults with a prior positive COVID-19 test reported current symptoms of long COVID.”  That could translate into 15 million people. Could an anti-herpes drug be helpful? This reader believes valacyclovir (Valtrex) was beneficial.

Could the Anti-Herpes Drug Valtrex Be Helpful?

Q. I had Covid in March of 2020. My case was relatively mild, but I experienced terrible brain fog. I could not concentrate well enough to organize a simple budget or pay a few bills. After six months I could not hold thoughts in my head long enough to make sure I was not making mistakes.

Then I had an outbreak of cold sores. My primary care doctor prescribed an anti-viral drug called Valtrex. After two rounds of the medication, I noticed I was able to think far better than in the past six months.

I can’t prove the Valtrex helped ease the problem, but that was the only change I made at the time. My thinking is that both cold sores and COVID are viral diseases that might impact the brain. Could this antiviral drug have helped?

A. There is growing evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can affect brain function. That may be why so many long COVID patients complain of brain fog. Could you be vulnerable?

Many people may have caught the coronavirus and remained asymptomatic. Weeks or months later symptoms of long COVID may have started to develop. Here is a link to test yourself to see if you may be one of those individuals.

Can COVID “Reactivate” Herpes Infections?

There is also some research to suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 virus might reactivate a herpes outbreak (Cureus, Sept. 16, 2021).

This is not the only study to suggest that the coronavirus may reactivate other dormant viruses lurking in the body. Although most people don’t like to think that they are harboring a variety of latent viruses, there is a suspicion that many people may have dormant herpes, varicella-zoster, cytomegalovirus (CMV) or Epstein-Barr (EB) viruses hanging out in cellular pockets.

Along comes COVID-19 and creates a hyperinflammatory reaction and/or a big immunological response. Some researchers think that such a shock to the system could reactivate some of these latent viruses (Nature, Aug. 25, 2022).

Italian researchers report (Infectious Diseases and Therapy, Oct. 2022) that COVID-19 may lead to reactivation of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) in as many as 40% of patients. That said, scientists are uncertain what to do about the reactivation of latent viruses by SARS-CoV-2 (Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, Sept. 2022).

Why Would An Anti-Herpes Drug Help?

The antiviral drug valacyclovir (Valtrex) speeds healing from a herpes outbreak. It would be fascinating if it could also help ease the brain fog associated with COVID-19. At this time all we can say is that this is a hypothesis. We could find no studies that support this concept.

We did find an article in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (Nov. 24, 2020) by Dr. Ruth Itzhaki. In it she suggests that if antivirals like Valtrex worked against the long-term mental effects of  long COVID, they might also work against Alzheimer’s disease (AD). You can listen to our interview with Dr. Itzhaki in which she discusses the herpes-theory of AD at this link.

Will an anti-herpes drug like valacyclovir change the course of long-COVID? It is far too early to know. We can only hope that a researcher will follow up on our reader’s observation with Valtrex.

Will Anyone Do The Anti-Herpes Drug Research?

I was intrigued to learn that one company, Virios Therapeutics, is exploring antiviral therapies to treat chronic illnesses. It announced a collaboration with Bateman Horne Center of Salt Lake City to:

“…to investigate the role of combination antiviral treatment for long Covid or Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19.”

They describe an interesting drug combo:

“A new combination of valacyclovir and celecoxib, IMC-2 merges two specific and synergistic mechanisms of action, deliberately chosen to hinder activation and replication of the herpes virus.”

Virios Therapeutics chief medical officer Michael Gendreau said:

“It is becoming increasingly clear that Covid-19 acutely depresses our immune system, which may allow for reactivation of neurotrophic pathogens such as viruses in the herpes family.”

Only time will tell if this combination of the anti-herpes drug valacyclovir and the NSAID celecoxib has potential against symptoms of long COVID.