A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study of Topical VDO for the Treatment of Herpes Simplex Labialis
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Recurrent herpes labialis are usually a minor malady of limited duration, although they are
often painful and are uniformly discomforting for patients. Oral antivirals represent an
advance in the treatment of recurrent herpes labialis, but the clinical implications are
modest. Randomized, controlled clinical trials have shown that oral antivirals decrease the
duration of lesion episodes and pain by approximately one day. In recurrent HSV infections
including herpes labialis, many instances of viral re-activation occur without symptoms, and
can only be identified by detection of virus on the lips of infected individuals. In these
cases, the virus is cleared from the local site without the development of a classical
ulcerative herpes lesion. In the other cases, the triggered specific immune response rapidly
stops viral replication in the skin and also causes the development of the herpes lesion
prodrome and a considerable part of the symptoms associated with a classical ulcerative
herpes lesion. One could therefore predict that treatment with an antiviral drug alone would
help the immune system in shortening the virus replication, but may not substantially reduce
the disfiguring symptoms caused by the immune reaction. In dermatology, the principle of
using an anti-inflammatory drug improve clinical outcomes by reducing inflammation-related
symptoms associated with the infection has been well established. We have found that a
topical formulation of VDO is useful for alleviating pain and inflammation associated with
infection caused by herpes virus.