Abstract
CHRONIC latent herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections are associated with tissues of the nervous system in experimentally infected mice and rabbits1,2 as well as in humans3–5. Cook and Stevens demonstrated, that, after inoclation into the skin, HSV migrates via the subserving nerves to the corresponding sensory ganglia6. The virus establishes there a latent infection which can be detected by methods of in vitro cultivation of the ganglia1–5. A consideration of the data obtained so far on the behaviour of latent HSV in mice, rabbits and men led Cook and Stevens as well as Baringer to the postulate, that latent HSV infections were restricted to tissues of the nervous system7,8. The failures to detect HSV in the skin during latent infections are consistent with this hypothesis9,10. Recurrent HSV infections are thought to arise by activation of the latent infection within the ganglia and the subsequent migration of the reactivated virus into the skin via the corresponding nerve fibres8,11. I have described recently experimental infections of guinea pigs with HSV type 2, which led to chronic latent infections of the animals with frequent spontaneously recurring lesions at the sites of initial inoculation12,13. In this report I present evidence that during the latent phase of the infection HSV can be recovered not only from nervous tissues but also from the skin at the site of the primary infection.
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SCRIBA, M. Extraneural localisation of herpes simplex virus in latently infected guinea pigs. Nature 267, 529–531 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/267529a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/267529a0
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