An Insight into Current Treatment Strategies, Their Limitations, and Ongoing Developments in Vaccine Technologies against Herpes Simplex Infections

Abstract

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, the most prevalent viral infection that typically lasts for a lifetime, is associated with frequent outbreaks of oral and genital lesions. Oral herpes infection is mainly associated with HSV-1 through oral contact, while genital herpes originates due to HSV-2 and is categorized under sexually transmitted diseases. Immunocompromised patients and children are more prone to HSV infection. Over the years, various attempts have been made to find potential targets for the prevention of HSV infection. Despite the global distress caused by HSV infections, there are no licensed prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines available on the market against HSV. Nevertheless, there are numerous promising candidates in the pre-clinical and clinical stages of study. The present review gives an overview of two herpes viruses, their history, and life cycle, and different treatments adopted presently against HSV infections and their associated limitations. Majorly, the review covers the recent investigations being carried out globally regarding various vaccine strategies against oral and genital herpes virus infections, together with the recent and advanced nanotechnological approaches for vaccine development. Consequently, it gives an insight to researchers as well as people from the health sector about the challenges and upcoming solutions associated with treatment and vaccine development against HSV infections.

Use of probiotic lactobacilli in the treatment of vaginal infections: In vitro and in vivo investigations

“…Long-term use of natural Lactobacillus species can change the CST status and increase HPV clearance in women with dysbiosis and concurrent HPV-infections, and thus may have a beneficial influence on HPV infection management ( DI Pierro et al., 2021 ). Acyclovir is the most common first-line therapy in HSV-2 infected individuals with recurrent genital infections ( Sharma et al., 2023 ). A randomized double-blind controlled trial comparing the effectiveness and safety of the multi-strain probiotic and acyclovir found no significant difference in resolution of episode, viral shedding, lesion healing time, or proportion of discomfort, demonstrating the great promise of probiotic lactobacilli against HSV-2 infection ( Mohseni et al., 2018 ).…”

Neonatal herpes simplex virus infection: From the maternal infection to the child outcome

“…[70][71][72] The development of numerous vaccine candidates is currently underway, including vaccines based on inactivated killed HSV vaccines, live-attenuated vaccines, replication-defective virus vaccines, subunit HSV vaccines, and nucleic acid vaccines. 73 We are hopeful that the next decade will see the development of a successful genital herpes vaccination.…”

Immunogenicity and Therapeutic Efficacy of a Sendai-Virus-Vectored HSV-2 Vaccine in Mouse and Guinea Pig Models

“…Once the therapy is stopped, symptoms as well as viral shedding are likely to recur. Shortcomings, such as the inability to eradicate latent viruses, a short treatment window, safety concerns in particular patients, limited prevention of viral transmission, lifelong medication, and the development of drug resistance, have not been sufficiently addressed [ 13 , 14 ]. Additionally, these suppressive chemicals are not effective in treating HIV-1/HSV-2 co-infectors in viral transmission [ 15 ].…”