Efficacy and safety of oral Chinese herbal medicine combined with nucleoside antiviral drugs against recurrent genital herpes:a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background:To compare the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine combined with nucleoside antiviral drugs and nucleoside antiviral drugs alone in treating recurrent genital herpes.Methods:PubMed,Embase,Web of Science,Cochrane Library,Chinese Biomedical Literature Database,China National Knowledge Internet,VIP Database,and Wanfang Data were searched from inception to April 2021.Randomized controlled trials on the efficacy and safety of oral Chinese herbal medicine combined with nucleoside antiviral drugs for recurrent genital herpes were collected.All included trials were independently assessed by two reviewers with the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool,and a meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.4.Results:Compared with the use of nucleoside antiviral drugs alone,combination therapy with oral Chinese herbal medicine plus nucleoside antiviral drugs effectively reduced the herpes recurrence rate after the end of treatment(3 months:P=0.0002;6 months:P<0.00001;1 year:P<0.00001)and the number of recurrences each year(P<0.00001),improved the recurrent Genital Herpes Quality of Life Questionnaire score(P<0.00001),and regulated the levels of interferon-γ,interleukin-2,tumor necrosis factor-α,and T lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood,and the difference was statistically significant.Different subgroups reported mixed results with respect to the efficacy in the short term.The incidence of adverse reactions and the time of symptom disappearance between the two groups were not significantly different.Conclusion:Chinese herbal medicine combined with nucleoside antiviral drugs can effectively reduce the recurrence rate of recurrent genital herpes,improve the patient’s quality of life and enhance the body’s immunity.Considering the possible risk of publication bias,more high-quality randomized controlled trials are still needed to verify the conclusions of this article.

Tc1/Tc2 Imbalance in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Recurrent Genital Herpes

In order to investigate the IFN-γ and IL-4 expression of CD8^＋T lymphoeytes in the peripheral blood from patients with recurrent genital herpes （RGH） at different clinical periods and their relationship with the pathogenesis of RGH, flow cytometry was used to detect the intracellular cytokines （IFN-γ and IL-4） of CD8^＋ T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of 30 patients with RGH at acute period, 20 patients with RGH at recovery period and 15 healthy volunteers. The results showed that RGH patients at acute period had a lower percentage of Tcl subsets in peripheral blood than that of healthy controls （P〈0. 001）, especially a remarkable decreased percentage of Tc1 subsets （P〈0. 001） among those RGH patients with recurrent number more than 3 in the recent half a year. Tc1/Tc2 ratio in the RGH patients at acute period was significantly decreased as conapared with normal control group （P〈0.05）. The recurrent number of acute patients in the recent half a year was significantly correlated with the percentage of Tc1 subsets and the ratio of Tc1/Tc2 （P〈 0.05）. A decreased percentage of Tc1 subsets was found among the RGH patients with recurrent number more than 3 in the recent half a year at recovery period in comparison with healthy volunteers （P〈0.05）, and it was significantly correlated with the recurrent number in the recent half a year （P〈0.05）. It is concluded that there are Tc1/Tc2 imbalance and a low level of Tc1 subsets in RGH patients who are relapsing repeatedly in the near period. The low level of Tc1 subsets may be an important factor for the recurrence of RGH and the reactivation of latent herpesvirus infection.