Figure 1.

Safety and protective efficacy of VC2 immunization in Balb/CJ mice against HSV-1 (McKrae strain) ocular challenge. (A) Mouse eyes were scarified and infected with HSV-1(F) or VC2 viruses at 10⁶ PFU per eye and viral loads in TGs were quantified by qPCR at 20 days post infection. (B) Kaplan-Meir survival curves of mice immunized with either, VC2, UV-irradiated VC2 or mock-immunized and challenged with HSV-1 (McKrae strain) at 21 days post booster immunization. The experiment was duplicated with n=10/group each time. (C) Kaplan-Meir survival curves as with (B) challenged with HSV-1 (McKrae strain) at 8 months post booster immunization, n=10/group. (D) Representative pictures of animals in each group at 5 DPI. (E) Ocular scores following challenge at 5 DPI. (F) Quantification of TG viral load following euthanasia. *<P=0.05, ****<P=0.0001 by One-Way ANOVA. *<P=0.05, **<P=0.005, ****<P=0.0001. ns, Non-Significant.