herpes
Clinical application of polymerase chain reaction amplification to diagnosis of herpes virus infection.

Thomas CA, Smith SE, Morgan TM, White WL, Feldman SR.

Department of Dermatology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Amplification of viral DNA offers a potentially sensitive and specific method for identifying herpes viruses in pathologic specimens. The purpose of this study is to assess the value of polymerase chain reaction amplification of DNA as a diagnostic test for herpes virus in pathologic specimens. The purpose of this study is to assess for herpes virus infections. We examined 79 paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 43 patients and 55 viral culture samples from 45 patients. Herpes virus DNA in the specimens was amplified by polymerase chain reaction. Using paraffin-embedded tissue on which a diagnosis of herpes virus was made by morphologic criteria, 11 of 19 patients had herpes virus DNA identified by PCR; herpes virus DNA was not identified in any of 35 negative control specimens. Herpes virus DNA was also identified by polymerase chain reaction in all of the positive herpes virus culture specimens. Of 29 culture negative specimens, herpes virus DNA was identified in six. We conclude that polymerase chain reaction is useful to establish or confirm the presence of a herpes virus infection in paraffin-embedded tissue samples and that it is more sensitive than viral culture.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7943633&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine



herpes
Solar simulator-induced herpes simplex labialis: use in evaluating treatment with acyclovir plus 348U87.

Bernstein DI, Rheins LA.

James N. Gamble Institute of Medical Research, Cincinnati, Ohio 45219.

Models of UV radiation induced herpes labialis utilizing crude light sources have previously been used to examine the efficacy of antivirals. We sought to improve upon this model by using a solar simulator. Initial studies revealed that 13 of 34 (38%) subjects with a history of recurrent HSV labialis receiving three minimal erythema doses (MED's) of UV light developed herpes labialis. We next evaluated the effects of combined therapy with topical ACV and 348U87, a ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor, begun immediately after UV exposure for the prevention and treatment of herpes labialis. No significant reduction in the incidence or severity of herpes labialis was detected although the study was terminated after the interim analysis revealed no benefit, thus reducing the power to detect a difference. This lack of effect may be explained by the general poor efficacy of topical treatment for recurrent HSV infection. Further studies of ACV + 348U87 in vehicles that should increase the penetration and stability of the drugs are planned.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8042862&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine



herpes
Follow-up of pregnant women at high risk of transmitting herpes simplex virus.

Schultz R, Suarez M, Saavedra T.

Universidad de Chile, Departamento de Microbiologia y Parasitologia, Correo Central, Santiago.

Prospects for neonatal herpes transmission were studied in a group of pregnant Chilean women at high herpetic risk--including 59 with a history of genital herpes, 11 with a first genital herpes episode during the observed pregnancy, and 16 whose sexual partners had a history of genital herpes. Each woman completed a survey questionnaire, provided serologic samples for detection of herpes simplex virus (HSV), and provided periodic samples taken with cotton swabs for HSV isolation. The 86 women who completed the study had an average age of 28 years; most (58.8%) were primiparas. Only 21 of the 86 subjects yielded HSV isolates (predominantly HSV-2) from weekly cotton swab samples taken from the 34th week of pregnancy onward. HSV-2 predominance was found both in the symptomatic cases and in the three asymptomatic ones. Of six subjects found to be shedding HSV at the time of delivery, only one exhibited asymptomatic shedding. These findings are consistent with the following conclusions derived from studies in developed countries: (1) Isolation of HSV in pregnancy does not define a greater risk of shedding HSV during childbirth. (2) In nearly all (five of six) cases, HSV shedding during childbirth involved symptomatic episodes of herpes that clearly defined the steps to be taken by the physician. (3) Despite this, the finding of one asymptomatic case demonstrates that the physician should request a test for HSV isolation at the time of delivery by a woman at high herpetic risk.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8069336&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine



herpes
Herpes simplex virus type 2 induced retinal necrosis in BALB/c mice.

Zierhut M, Hemady R, Zhao TZ, Merchant A, Foster CS.

Hilles Immunology Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston.

We injected herpes simplex virus type 2 of MS- or G-strain into the anterior chamber of BALB/c mice. In the contralateral eye inflammatory cell infiltration began in the ciliary body; focal retinitis, detected by day 8, led to total destruction of the retina by day 10. Contralateral disease was observed in 75% of mice inoculated with 8 x 10(3) pfu herpes simplex virus type 2, but in only 20% of mice receiving 80 pfu herpes simplex virus type 2. Still this low concentration, however, produced a suppressed delayed-type hypersensitivity response. Anti-herpes simplex virus type 2 antibody, first detected on day 8, reached high titers on day 10; by then, most of the mice had died of encephalitis. The G-strain of herpes simplex virus type 2 was more neurotoxic than the MS-strain, but produced the same incidence of contralateral retinitis. Herpes simplex virus type 2 products contralateral necrotizing retinitis comparable to that produced by herpes simplex virus type 1. These findings, like those of other authors, suggest a role for herpes simplex virus type 2 in some cases of acute retinal necrosis in humans.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8079627&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine



herpes
Seroprevalence of antibodies to human herpes viruses in England and Hong Kong.

Kangro HO, Osman HK, Lau YL, Heath RB, Yeung CY, Ng MH.

Department of Virology, St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, West Smithfield, London, England.

The age-related prevalence of antibodies to herpes viruses was compared in England and Hong Kong. Altogether 327 sera from England and 266 sera from Hong Kong were tested for antibodies to herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6). Herpesvirus infections were common in both countries but generally were acquired earlier and were more prevalent in Hong Kong. Over 90% of children in Hong Kong were infected with VZV, EBV, and HHV-6 by 8 years of age. HSV and CMV were the least prevalent childhood infections in both countries, although, 30-40% of babies in Hong Kong became infected during the first year of life. CMV infections were rare throughout childhood in the English cohort. Overcrowding and early attendance at kindergarten may aid more efficient and earlier transmission of herpes virus in Hong Kong. The high prevalence of CMV in particular may have implications for the management of young pregnant women and organ transplant recipients in Hong Kong.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8083655&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine



herpes
Proteolytic cleavage of bovine herpes virus 1 (BHV-1) glycoprotein gB is not necessary for its function in BHV-1 or pseudorabies virus.

Kopp A, Blewett E, Misra V, Mettenleiter TC.

Federal Research Centre for Virus Diseases of Animals, Tubingen, Germany.

Glycoprotein B homologs represent the most highly conserved group of herpes virus glycoproteins. They exist in oligomeric forms based on a dimeric structure. Despite the high degree of sequence and structural conservation, differences in posttranslational processing are observed. Whereas gB of herpes simplex virus is not proteolytically processed after oligomerization, most other gB homologs are cleaved by a cellular protease into subunits that remain linked via disulfide bonds. Proteolytic cleavage is common for activation of viral fusion proteins, and it has been shown that herpes virus gB homologs are essential for membrane fusion events during infection, e.g., virus penetration and direct viral cell-to-cell spread. To analyze the importance of proteolytic cleavage for the function of gB homologs, we isolated a mutant bovine herpes virus 1 (BHV-1) expressing a BHV-1 gB that is no longer proteolytically processed because of a deletion of the proteolytic cleavage site and analyzed its phenotype in cell culture. We showed previously that BHV-1 gB can functionally substitute for the homologous glycoprotein in pseudorabies virus (PrV), based on the isolation of a PrV gB-negative PrV recombinant that expresses BHV-1 gB (A. Kopp and T. C. Mettenleiter, J. Virol, 66:2754-2762, 1992). Therefore, we also isolated a mutant PrV lacking PrV gB but expressing a noncleavable BHV-1 gB. Our results show that cleavage of BHV-1 gB is not essential for its function in either a BHV-1 or a PrV background. Compared with the PrV recombinant expressing cleavable BHV-1 gB, deletion of the cleavage site in the recombinant PrV did not detectably alter the viral phenotype, as analyzed by plaque assays, one-step growth kinetics, and penetration kinetics. In the BHV-1 mutant, the uncleaved BHV-1 gB was functionally equivalent to the wild-type protein with regard to penetration and showed only slightly delayed one-step growth kinetics compared with parental wild-type BHV-1. However, the resulting plaques were significantly smaller, indicating a role for proteolytic cleavage of BHV-1 gB in cell-to-cell spread of BHV-1.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8107227&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine



herpes
Molecular evolution of herpes viruses: genomic and protein sequence comparisons.

Karlin S, Mocarski ES, Schachtel GA.

Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, California 94305.

Phylogenetic reconstruction of herpes virus evolution is generally founded on amino acid sequence comparisons of specific proteins. These are relevant to the evolution of the specific gene (or set of genes), but the resulting phylogeny may vary depending on the particular sequence chosen for analysis (or comparison). In the first part of this report, we compare 13 herpes virus genomes by using a new multidimensional methodology based on distance measures and partial orderings of dinucleotide relative abundances. The sequences were analyzed with respect to (i) genomic compositional extremes; (ii) total distances within and between genomes; (iii) partial orderings among genomes relative to a set of sequence standards; (iv) concordance correlations of genome distances; and (v) consistency with the alpha-, beta-, gammaherpes virus classification. Distance assessments within individual herpes virus genomes show each to be quite homogeneous relative to the comparisons between genomes. The gammaherpes viruses, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), herpes virus saimiri, and bovine herpes virus 4 are both diverse and separate from other herpes virus classes, whereas alpha- and betaherpes viruses overlap. The analysis revealed that the most central genome (closest to a consensus herpes virus genome and most individual herpes virus sequences of different classes) is that of human herpes virus 6, suggesting that this genome is closest to a progenitor herpes virus. The shorter DNA distances among alphaherpes viruses supports the hypothesis that the alpha class is of relatively recent ancestry. In our collection, equine herpes virus 1 (EHV1) stands out as the most central alphaherpes virus, suggesting it may approximate an ancestral alphaherpes virus. Among all herpes viruses, the EBV genome is closest to human sequences. In the DNA partial orderings, the chicken sequence collection is invariably as close as or closer to all herpes virus sequences than the human sequence collection is, which may imply that the chicken (or other avian species) is a more natural or more ancient host of herpes viruses. In the second part of this report, evolutionary relationships among the 13 herpes virus genomes are evaluated on the basis of recent methods of amino acid alignment applied to four essential protein sequences. In this analysis, the alignment of the two betaherpes viruses (human cytomegalovirus versus human herpes virus 6) showed lower scores compared with alignments within alphaherpes viruses (i.e., among EHV1, herpes simplex virus type 1, varicella-zoster virus, pseudorabies virus type 1 and Marek's disease virus) and within gammaherpes viruses (EBV versus herpes virus saimiri).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8107249&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine



herpes
Detection of herpes simplex virus DNA in human tear film by the polymerase chain reaction.

Yamamoto S, Shimomura Y, Kinoshita S, Nishida K, Yamamoto R, Tano Y.

Department of Ophthalmology, Osaka University Medical School, Japan.

We investigated the use of the polymerase chain reaction for detecting genomes of herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, and cytomegalovirus from tear film of patients with clinically diagnosed herpes simplex virus keratitis. Using the polymerase chain reaction with a herpes simplex virus detection sensitivity adjusted to 1.0 plaque-forming units/ml, we detected herpes simplex virus genomic sequences in 12 of 12 epithelial keratitis specimens, two of six stromal keratitis specimens, but in none of 20 normal specimens. Neither varicella-zoster virus nor cytomegalovirus genomic sequences were detected in any sample. These results suggest that polymerase chain reaction quickly performed with reduced sensitivity is useful as a diagnostic tool for confirming clinical observations.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8116743&dopt=Abstract herpes medicine