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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 19, 1993                   TAG: 9301190085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTEREY, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

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STUDY LINKS HERPES VIRUS, HEART DISEASE

The herpes virus that causes cold sores triggers blood clots and promotes the cholesterol deposits linked to heart disease, studies show.

Researchers have known for 15 years that herpes infections can increase the risk of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Now, they have determined precisely how the virus does it.

"The virus changes the structure of blood-clotting proteins so they stick to our arteries," said the author of the studies, David Hajjar of Cornell University Medical College in New York. "We now know what that change is."

Hajjar and his colleagues also have determined how the herpes virus helps cholesterol lodge in artery walls. He reported the findings Monday at the American Heart Association's annual conference for science writers.

The findings don't mean that everyone who gets cold sores is at high risk of heart disease. Many Americans have been exposed to herpes virus, and it is too early to say whether the virus itself poses a heart-disease risk in the same way that smoking, high blood pressure and obesity do, said Hajjar.

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