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J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.02047-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Herpes simplex virus virion host shutoff attenuates establishment of the antiviral state

Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Genetics, and Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 63110; Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63104

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: leib{at}vision.wustl.edu.

	Abstract

Herpes simplex virus mutants lacking the vhs protein are severely attenuated in animal models of pathogenesis and exhibit reduced growth in primary cell culture. As a result of these properties vhs-deleted virus have been proposed as live-attenuated viruses. Despite these findings and their implications for vaccines, the mechanisms by which vhs promotes infection in cell culture and in vivo are not understood. In this study we demonstrate that vhs-deficient viruses replicate to reduced levels in interferon (IFN)-primed cells, and this deficit has both IFN-dependent and IFN-independent components. Furthermore, vhs-defective viruses induce increased and physiologically active levels of IFN, increased amounts of IFN-stimulated transcripts, and more phosphorylated eIF2. In addition, we demonstrate greater accumulation of viral RNAs following infection with a vhs-deficient virus. This leads to the hypothesis that attenuation of viruses lacking vhs may be attributed to increased levels of double-stranded RNA, a potent pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP). Together these data show that vhs likely functions to reduce innate immune responses and thereby acts as critical determinant of viral pathogenesis.

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