Old drug reduces herpes symptoms, spread in animal tests

Antidepressant tranylcypromine might also work as antiviral

An antidepressant drug suppresses the herpes simplex virus. Tranylcypromine, marketed since the 1960s as Parnate, inhibited initial herpes infection in animal tests, reduced flare-ups in previously infected animals and rendered them less infectious to others, researchers report in the Dec. 3 Science Translational Medicine.