An improved system for the evaluation of antiviral compounds against herpes simplex virus type 2

Infection with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) can result in lesions in reproductive organs, along with long-term latency. In this work, a non-lethal strain of HSV-2 which was isolated clinically was used to infect female mice intravaginally. Body weight, vulval lesions, histological examination of vaginal tissue, and viral load were monitored and used as indices for evaluating antiviral drugs against HSV-2 infection. The results indicated that mice infected with HSV-2 exhibited significant reduction in body weight, serious vulval lesions, massive lymphocyte invasion of vaginal tissue, and approximately 104 copies/μl of HSV-2 were found in vaginal and uterine tissues. Aciclovir (ACV) treatment inhibited loss in body weight, genital pathology and virus replication (reduced to 100.3 copies/μl) effectively. The study provides a simple, reproducible and feasible animal model for anti-HSV-2 drugs evaluation and HSV-2 vaccine research.

► Non-lethal HSV-2 wu strain was used to infect mice and induce vaginitis.
► Body weight, lesion scores, histopathology and viral load were evaluated.
► Quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect viral load instead of plague assay.