Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Department of

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

November 2005

Comments

Published in JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY, Nov. 2005, p. 14465–14469 Vol. 79, No. 22. Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. Used by permission.

Abstract

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is the leading cause of virus-induced encephalitis; however, the viral genes that regulate encephalitis have not been well characterized. In this study, we tested whether the LAT (latency-associated transcript) locus regulates the frequency of encephalitis in male or female mice. Male BALB/c mice are more susceptible to HSV-1-induced encephalitis than age-matched female BALB/c mice. Deletion of LAT coding sequences reduced the frequency of encephalitis. A recombinant virus containing the first 1.5 kb of the LAT coding sequence induces levels of encephalitis in male BALB/c mice similar to those induced by wild-type HSV-1.

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