Further Studies on the Effect of Neutralizing Antibody upon the Course of Herpes Simplex Infections in Tissue Culture

Abstract

Abstract Complement fixing and neutralizing antibodies to the herpes simplex virus are found, usually in high titer, in the sera of persons who have recurrent herpes simplex infections (1–14). The antibody levels in the sera of these patients, according to available evidence, do not fluctuate in response to the recurrent infections (the antibody level is as high before the recurrence as it is during and after) (2, 5–11, 13). These observations suggest that circulating antibody is incapable of completely eradicating the virus, although the antibody may limit viral activity to small areas. In addition, experiments with tissue cultures infected with herpes simplex (Andrewes (15) and Farnum (16)) and the related B-virus (Black and Melnick (17)) indicate that the virus infection can develop in tissue cultures nourished with antibody-containing medium if the virus is added before addition of the antibody. To study the effect of antibody upon the course of the herpes simplex infection, herpes-infected HeLa cultures nourished with growth media containing varying amounts of neutralizing antibody were chosen as a model.