Fig 7.
Effects of local prophylactic or therapeutic administration of HD5 or E21R-HD5 peptides on protection of mice from lethal vaginal HSV infection. All groups of female BALB/c mice (n = 10 per group) were intravaginally inoculated with the lethal dose of 105 PFU/mouse of HSV-2. The mice were administered by a single-dose intravaginal instillation of 20 μl of PBS solution containing 0.2 mg of HD5 or E21R-HD5 peptide 1 h prior to challenge (indicated by dots) or 24 h postinfection. Control animals were treated with PBS alone at the same time point. The animals were observed for any signs of disease for 14 days postinfection. Panels a and b show survival percent and mean pathology score following prophylactic or therapeutic treatment of the peptides, respectively. Panel c shows HSV-2 genome copies in the spinal cord determined by quantitative PCR on day 7. Data are expressed in log scale as medians and the 25% and 75% percentiles (boxes) with the minimum and maximum responses (n = 5 per group).