Studies on herpes simplex virus and cancer.

Area of Science:

• Virology
• Immunology
• Oncology

Background:

• Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection involves complex interactions with host cells, producing various viral polypeptides.
• Understanding HSV type-specific and common antigens is crucial for diagnostics and vaccine development.
• The potential role of HSV in oncogenesis, particularly in cervical cancer, warrants further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize HSV-induced polypeptides and their antigenicity.
• To investigate the pathogenicity of HSV mutants in vivo.
• To explore the correlation between HSV infection and cancer, specifically cervical and breast cancers, by analyzing patient sera for antibodies to HSV proteins.

Main Methods:

• Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and antigenicity determination of HSV-induced polypeptides.
• Infection of newborn mice with wild-type and temperature-sensitive (ts) HSV mutants to assess pathogenicity.
• Indirect radioimmune precipitation assays using sera from cancer patients and healthy individuals to detect antibodies against HSV-infected cell proteins.

Main Results:

• HSV types 1 and 2 share some common polypeptides (VP154, VP134) but also possess type-specific ones (VP175, VP123).
• Only glycosylated HSV polypeptides induced neutralizing antibodies.
• Sera from cervical cancer patients exhibited higher reactivity to early, nonstructural HSV polypeptides compared to breast cancer patients or healthy controls.
• Reactivity to a late-synthesized major capsid polypeptide showed minimal differences across patient groups.

Conclusions:

• HSV infection generates both common and type-specific antigenic responses.
• The presence of specific HSV genetic information can be inferred from the replication of ts mutants in cancer cells.
• Elevated antibody levels to early HSV nonstructural proteins in cervical cancer patients suggest a potential association between HSV infection and cervical carcinogenesis.