Fig 6. Effect of dTat-gK4 peptide on virus replication, eye disease, and survival in BALB/c infected mice.
(A) Virus replication in the eye of infected mice. Ten BALB/c mice from two separate experiments were infected ocularly with 1 X 105 PFU/eye of HSV-1 strain McKrae. One day before infection and on days 1–5 PI, mice received 20 μg of dTat-gK4 or dTat control peptide as an eye drop twice daily in 5 μl of 1xPBS. Eye swabs were collected each day for 6 days and virus titer in tear films were measured by standard plaque assay. Each point represents mean ± SEM from 20 eyes; (B) Blepharitis in ocularly infected mice. Blepharitis in infected mice was measured on day 4 PI. Each point is mean ± SEM from 20 eyes; and (C) Survival in ocularly infected mice. Survival of the above mice was followed for 28 days. Survival is based on ten mice per treatment group.