Shingles Research

Shingles research continues because of nervous system involvement and the chickenpox/shingles virus is studied by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a part of the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Eye Institute also support research on shingles.

shingles research

Medical research on shingles has two main goals. The first is to develop drugs to fight the disease and to prevent or treat its complications, especially postherpetic neuralgia. The second is to understand the disease well enough to prevent it, especially in people at high risk.

Scientists need to learn much more about the VZV, particularly how it becomes latent in the body and what induces it to become active again. Scientists suspect that the VZV DNA is inserted into one of the chromosomes of the nerve cell - the units that house the cell´s own genetic material.

shingles research & the immune system

A healthy immune system protects against all kinds of diseases, but people with faulty immunity are vulnerable to many illnesses, including shingles. Antibodies, one of the immune system´s major defense mechanisms against infection, are not very helpful against shingles.

The immune cells that appear to combat shingles are two types of white blood cells: T lymphocytes and macrophages. Scientists are trying to find ways to boost the activity of these cells - especially in patients at high risk for severe or disseminated shingles (a rare condition in which the virus spreads to other areas of the body, sometimes vital areas such as the blood or the lungs).

shingles research & vZV

Other researchers are studying how VZV infects neurons. In particular, they are looking at how the virus assembles in and exits out of nerve cells, with the goal of blocking this important step. In another study, researchers are developing animal models to evaluate VZV vaccines. Their findings may lead to improved vaccines that protect against varicella or prevent it from establishing latent infection or reactivation to cause shingles and postherpetic neuralgia.

Other research is aimed at finding new methods for identifying the biological differences between people who suffer from or escape long-term postherpetic neuralgia pain after shingles. The goals of this research are to identify ways to reduce the risk of postherpetic neuralgia after shingles.