Fig 5.
Protection after gE2-del virus immunization at various doses. Mice were mock immunized or immunized i.m. twice at 3-week intervals with 5 × 103, 5 × 104, or 5 × 105 PFU gE2-del virus. Twenty-eight days later, mice were infected IVAG with 5 × 104 PFU HSV-2 MS and monitored for survival kinetics (A) and vaginal disease scores (B). For panels A and B, 9 mice were in the mock group and the gE2-del virus group immunized with 5 × 105 PFU gE2-del virus, while 5 mice were in each of the other groups. Error bars in panel B represent SEM. (C) Mock-immunized mice or those immunized with 5 × 105 PFU gE2-del virus were evaluated for HSV-2 infectious titers in DRG at 4 days postinfection by plaque assay. (D) The same DRG were evaluated for HSV-2 Us9 DNA copy number by qPCR at 4 days postinfection (left graph), as well as for gE2 DNA (middle graph) and GFP DNA (right graph). The symbols used link results for individual mice in panel D. Results in panels C and D represent geometric means ± SEM. The dotted lines in panel D represent the copy numbers required to consider a sample positive, which are >23 for gE2 DNA and >8 for GFP DNA.