The Effects of Acyclovir on Antibody Response to Herpes Simplex Virus in Primary Genital Herpetic Infections

The humoral response to herpes simplex virus (HSV) was examined in 21 patients with primary HSV infection who were participating in a placebo-controlled trial of oral acyclovir as therapy for first-episode genital herpes. A standard microneutralization assay and a western blot analysis, which detects the antibody response to individual polypeptides of HSV types 1 and 2, were used. Placebo-treated, HSV type-2-infected patients typically responded to HSV type-2 polypeptides that had molecular masses of 125, 84, 68, 59, 46, and 40 kilodaltons. Treatment with acyclovir diminished the humoral response both to HSV, as measured by the type-specific neutralizing-antibody titer, and to specific polypeptides, especially those with molecular masses of 50-100 kilodaltons, a range that includes polypeptides with molecular masses corresponding to those of glycoproteins D and E of HSV.