6533b7d2fe1ef96bd125e116

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Vaginal infection of mice with HSV type 2 variant ER−: A new animal model for human primary genital HSV type 2 infections

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Abstract Studying the pathogenesis of vaginal infections in mice with two variants of Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) strain ER we observed that both variants ER+ and ER− caused severe vaginitis but only ER+ invaded the CNS leading to lethal neurological disease. In contrast, mice infected with ER− cleared the virus from the vagina and recovered from infection. ER+ and ER− expressed equal levels of thymidine kinase (TK) indicating a TK-independent difference in neurovirulence. Using the non-neurovirulent variant ER−, we were able to investigate humoral immune responses late after infection. Vaginal infection with ER− suppressed serum antibody formation after a secondary systemic HSV-1 infection. Fresh isolates of HSV-1 and HSV-2 caused uniformly a lethal neurological disease after vaginal inoculation of mice. However, some animals survived an intraperitoneal infection with these isolates. Infection with HSV-1 isolates stimulated a strong antibody production, whereas infection with HSV-2 isolates suppressed antibody formation, thus supporting earlier results from our group obtained with laboratory strains. Since suppression of antibody formation could be demonstrated with clinical HSV-2 isolates and likewise after vaginal infection with HSV-2 variant ER−we consider this phenomenon to be of relevance in human genital HSV-2 infections. Vaginal infection of mice with variant ER− represents a new model for primary genital HSV-2 infections; this model could be useful for histopathological, virological, immunological and drug testing studies.