Figure 3. The presence of a CD8⁺ T cell epitope in M2 sets the MuHV-4 long-term latent load.

BALB/c mice were intranasally infected (10⁴ PFU) and at 14, 21, 50 or 80 days post-infection spleen removed and titrated for reactivation-competent virus by explant co-culture. Each point shows the titre of one mouse. Horizontal lines indicate arithmetic means. The dashed horizontal line represents the limit of assay detection. Pre-formed infectious virus, as measured by parallel titration of equivalent frozen/thawed samples, was below the limit of detection of the assay. At d50 and d80 post-infection vM2_F85A and vM2_L92A showed significantly higher latency loads than vWT: d50, vM2_F85A p = 0.021, vM2_L92A p = 0.012; d80, vM2_F85A p = 0.007, vM2_L92A p = 0.001; using 1 tailed Student's t-Test with p values shown when false discovery rate correction for multiple testing (FDR) was <0.05. Data were reproducible over two independent experimental groups.