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Isolation of virus from brain after immunosuppression of mice with latent herpes simplex

Abstract

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is usually present in a latent form in the trigeminal ganglion of man1–3. Various stress factors may induce virus reactivation, which is manifest by a lip lesion (innervated from the trigeminal ganglion) and the production of infectious virus. The considerable experimental efforts to define the conditions that lead to the reactivation of latent HSV have concentrated on isolating virus either from the original extraneural site of virus inoculation, or from cell-free homogenates of sensory ganglia from latently infected animals4–15. Recent DNA hybridization experiments resulted in the demonstration of the presence of HSV genomes in the brain tissue of both latently infected mice, and of humans who showed no clinical symptoms of HSV (ref. 16 and N. Fraser, personal communication). This led us to consider the possibility that HSV may be present in brain tissue as the result of either reactivation of the virus in brain cells or the passage of reactivated virus from trigeminal ganglia through the brain stem to the brain. The presence of infectious HSV in brain tissue has not previously been demonstrated; yet this could be a factor in chronic, relapsing neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis. We have now shown experimentally that mice carrying latent HSV in their trigeminal ganglia may, following massive immunosuppression, express infectious virus in the central nervous system (CNS).

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Kastrukoff, L., Long, C., Doherty, P. et al. Isolation of virus from brain after immunosuppression of mice with latent herpes simplex. Nature 291, 432–433 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/291432a0

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