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Nature Medicine 8, 327 - 328 (2002)
doi:10.1038/nm0402-327

New anti-HSV therapeutics target the helicase–primase complex

Clyde S. Crumpacker1 & Priscilla A. Schaffer1

  1. Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Harvard Medical School and Division of Infectious Diseases Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Boston, Massachusetts
    e-mail: pschaffe@caregroup.harvard.edu


The only targets for clinical treatment of herpes simplex virus infections have been the viral enzymes thymidine kinase and DNA polymerase. Now, animal experiments show the healing benefits of new antiherpes drugs that act on the viral helicase–primase complex and appear superior to the standard treatment, acyclovir.


Herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and -2) are responsible for the quiet pandemics of oral and genital herpes that have plagued humanity for centuries. In the United States alone, 22% of the population is infected with HSV-2, and 1.

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