The Center for the Biology of Chronic Disease (CBCD) recommends two natural cytomegalovirus (CMV) remedies after revising data from a team of researchers at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic, Department of Gastroenterology at the University Hospital in Madrid, Spain, suggesting that CMV infection is associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Cytomegalovirus, or “CMV” is a common virus in people that rarely causes symptoms.
Research by lead author Dr. Elena Garrido and colleagues found CMV is present in severe cases of IBD, and latent forms of the virus can be reactivated in immunocompromised individuals. Dr. Garrido noted that CMV virus “can reactivate to different stimuli such as immunosuppression; CMV reactivation is frequent in severe or steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis (UC), a form of IBD. CMV colitis occurs in ‘seropositive’ patients (that is, people infected by the CMV virus) with IBD.” However, healthy individuals can also be susceptible to CMV-induced IBD. CMV “can reactivate in the healthy adult, this new activation being typically asymptomatic (without visible symptoms); this delicate balance can be disrupted in patients whose immune response is compromised, which may lead to development of symptoms in different organs, such as CMV colitis,” Dr. Garrido added.
After revising the data, the CBCD recommends treatment with Novirin or Gene-Eden-VIR, previously tested in FDA-approved clinical trials. The results from these studies showed both drugs are an effective treatment against a wide range of viruses, including herpes simplex virus and CMV.
The lead investigators in these trials, Dr. Hanan Polansky and Dr. Edan Itzkovitz, noted, “Several drugs are approved for the treatment of CMV infections in immunocompromised individuals. These drugs include ganciclovir, its oral prodrug valganciclovir, cidofovir, foscavir and fomivirsen. However, the use of these drugs in immunocompetent individuals is limited by their toxicity, poor oral bioavailability, modest efficacy, and the development of drug resistance.”
In response to these results, the CBCD is now highlighting the need to control latent CMV infection and proposes treatment with Novirin or Gene-Eden-VIR.
The study, entitled, “Clinical significance of cytomegalovirus infection in patients with inflammatory bowel disease” was published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.