[Humoral and cell-mediated immunity in herpes simplex virus infection]

The latent herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection is the source of multiple recurrent infections with this virus. Viral latency is the result of different specific and nonspecific defense mechanisms. Factors of the nonspecific defense system protect against the viral spread from the peripheral inoculation site via the lymphohaematogenous pathway. Therefore, viral spread is restricted to the neural route. Elimination of infection in the highly HLA class I-antigens expressing epithelial cells is caused by the cell-mediated immunity interrupting further virus invasion into the sensory and autonomous ganglia. In the bradytrophic neuronal cells, virus replication is moderate in comparison to epithelial cells. Here, the virus elimination and latency is mainly induced by the humoral immune response, probably because of the low level of expressed HLA-antigens. The relevance of the various immune mechanisms is demonstrated for some clinical situations, such as infection during pregnancy, in newborns and immunocompromised patients, exogenous reinfection and endogenous recurrence.