Succor from Seaweed

Despite its success in fighting many of mankind's worst maladies, medical science has made virtually no headway against a family of viruses that infects about 80% of the world's adult population: herpes simplex type I, which causes cold sores and herpes keratitis (an eye infection responsible for 18,000 cases of blindness in the U.S. every year) and type II, which produces sores in the genital area, and is under suspicion as one cause of cervical cancer.

Red Algae. Now two University of California researchers have discovered something that seems to stop the tenacious virus dead in its tracks: extracts from common red seaweed that have been known since 1964 to have antibacterial and antifungal properties. Acting on a hunch, Virologist E. Frank Deig and Graduate Student Douglas Ehresmann decided to find out if the extracts might also be effective against viruses. Since 1974 they have examined for antiviral properties 29 varieties of red algae common to northern California waters. Each variety was washed in distilled water, dried, boiled and homogenized in a blender. A 1 % solution of the resulting liquid extract was applied to human cells that were then inoculated with type I or type II herpes. The solution proved 99% effective in stopping viral multiplication. When the solution was applied to cells already infected with herpes, the spread of the virus was reduced by 50%. While the extract has not yet been tested on other types of herpes-like viruses that are responsible for such illnesses as chicken pox, shingles and mononucleosis, the Californians believe that it could also inhibit them.

Isolating the active substance, a polysaccharide, in ten of the 28 varieties of seaweed, the scientists discovered that this substance acts by blocking the viral adsorption point in the cell membrane--the point where the virus normally enters the cell. Human cells in culture appear to be otherwise unaffected by the substance and tests are already being made on mice and rabbits. But it will probably be as much as two years before researchers are certain enough about the safety of the extract to make it available to humans. The last promising technique for controlling herpes --daubing the skin eruptions with a photosensitive dye and exposing them to fluorescent light (TIME, July 12, 1971) --quickly dried up the sores and seemed to delay their recurrence. But it was largely abandoned when researchers demonstrated that the treatment produced chromosomal changes in the virus that enabled it to transform normal animal test cells into malignant ones.

Should the extract eventually be used on humans, according to Ehresmann, it will probably be applied in ointment form directly to the developing herpes sores. That day would come none too soon for millions of herpes sufferers. Says Ehresmann: "Herpes virus disease is very disabling and disrupts the life of a victim. Any substance that could help control it would be a significant contribution to human health."

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