Complement-requiring neutralizing antibody in guinea pigs with primary and recurrent genital herpes.
Guinea pigs inoculated intravaginally with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) strain 1868 produced a serum complement-requiring neutralizing (CRN) antibody during primary acute infection, i.e., 10 days postinoculation. The CRN antibody titers in the guinea pig sera decreased to less than 1:10 after heating at 56 degrees C for 30 min. It was found that 32 units of complement were necessary to obtain a satisfactory HSV-2 neutralizing antibody titer. Nonheated sera significantly reduced virus infectivity titers when mixed with 3.5 log10 PFU of HSV-2 and incubated at 37 degrees C for 20 to 60 min (P less than 0.001), whereas the same sera after heating at 56 degrees C for 30 min showed no inhibitory effect. Only 27.3% of infected guinea pigs had low serum non-CRN antibody titers ranging from 1:20 to 1:40. In addition, no evidence of increase in CRN antibody titers was noted during spontaneous recurrent genital herpes infection.
D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D003165:Complement System Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000276:immunology*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D012008:Recurrence; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000276:immunology*
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D003165:Complement System Proteins