Pathogenicity of glycoprotein C-deficient herpes simplex virus 1 strain TN-1 which encodes truncated glycoprotein C.
A clinical isolate of herpes simplex virus 1 (TN-1) from a stromal keratitis patient was found to be defective in the glycoprotein C (gC) gene (UL44), thus resulting in the production of truncated gC upon infection. To study the pathogenetic role of truncated gC, we prepared a recombinant LTN-8 derived from TN-1 with deletions of the 1.5 kilobase pairs of the gC gene including the initiation codon. A penetration assay revealed LTN-8 to be less efficient in its penetration ability than TN-1, the laboratory strain KOS and RTN-1-20-3, a recombinant derived from TN-1 with the KOS gC gene. The penetration of LTN-8 was facilitated by the addition of TN-1-infected culture medium. TN-1 virus preparations had no hemagglutinating activity. However, the animals infected with TN-1 did develop hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibodies. The LTN-8-infected animals did not develop HI antibodies. The pathogenicity in BALB/c mice following either corneal, intraperitoneal or intracerebral inoculation did not significantly differ among TN-1, RTN-1-20-3 or LTN-8. Our results indicate that truncated gC was sufficient for the induction of HI antibodies and was also able to facilitate penetration in vitro. Although truncated gC might be a virulence factor acting as a decoy, both truncated gC and intact gC had little effect on the outcome following intracerebral, intraperitoneal or corneal inoculation.
Minagawa
H
H
Department of Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. hmina@virology.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Liu
Y
Y
Yoshida
T
T
Hidaka
Y
Y
Toh
Y
Y
Mori
R
R
D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018387:Codon, Initiator; D005260:Female; D006385:Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D016849:Keratitis, Herpetic / Q000821:virology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D011817:Rabbits; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014709:Vero Cells; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D018387:Codon, Initiator; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C038535:glycoprotein gC, herpes simplex virus type 1