Eczema herpeticum is a potentially serious disease that may be fatal. We report two cases of infection with genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) that were complicated by eczema herpeticum and were treated successfully with acyclovir.

Herpes viruses are prevalent and well characterized human pathogens. Despite extensive study, much remains to be learned about the structure of the genome packaging and release machinery in the capsids of these large and complex double-stranded DNA viruses. However, such machinery is well characterized in tailed bacteriophage, which share a common evolutionary origin with herpesvirus. In tailed...

Evidence suggests that the herpes simplex virus regulatory protein ICP27 mediates the nuclear export of viral transcripts; however, the extent of this activity during infection is unclear. ICP27 is required for efficient expression of the long, leaky-late UL24 transcripts, but not for that of the short, early UL24 transcripts. We found that infection by an ICP27-null mutant resulted in undetect...

We used paired-end Illumina deep sequencing and de novo assembly to determine the genome sequence of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) strain MacIntyre (aka McIntyre). The MacIntyre strain originated from the brain of a patient with lethal HSV encephalitis and has a unique limitation in its neuronal spread, moving solely in the retrograde direction.

ICP0, a key herpes simplex virus regulatory protein, functions first in the nucleus and then in the cytoplasm. The duration of its nuclear sojourn in cells transfected with DNA and then infected is related to the quantity of transfected DNA. Furthermore, ICP0 transactivates both viral genes and genes encoded by the transfected DNA. The data support the hypothesis that ICP0 is retained in the nu...

Our recent study demonstrates the feasibility of the thyroglobulin (TG) promoter in transcriptionally targeted gene therapy for thyroid carcinomas expressing TG, albeit less effectively than the constitutive viral promoter. The present study was, therefore, designed to enhance the activity of the TG promoter with the Cre-loxP system. Our data demonstrate that the in vitro cytotoxic effect of he...

Angora, New Zealand, and Dutch-belted rabbits were tested for their susceptibility to graded doses of Herpesvirus hominis type 2 administered by vaginal instillation, intracorneal injection, and scarification of the cornea. Central nervous system involvement and death occurred after infection by the various routes employed. Prior immunization of Dutch-belted and New Zealand rabbits with viable ...

5-Bromodeoxycytidine is phosphorylated to 5-bromodeoxycytidine 5'-monophosphate in extracts of cells infected with herpes simplex virus but not in extracts of uninfected cells. The conversion of 5-bromodeoxycytidine to nucleotides and its utilization for DNA synthesis in uninfected cells occurs by deamination of 5-bromodeoxycytidine to 5-bromodeoxyuridine followed by phosphorylation of 5-bromod...

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 DNA isomerization was studied using a uniquely designed amplicon that mimics the viral genomic structure. The results revealed that amplicon concatemers frequently contain adjacent amplicon units with their segments in opposed orientations. These unusual concatemers were generated through homologous recombination, which does not require HSV DNA as the source of...

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), a constituent of the lipoproteins, may be relevant in herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection of the central nervous system (CNS), since HSV-1 binds to human serum ApoE lipoproteins. This study demonstrates the involvement of ApoE in the hematogenous route of HSV-1 to the CNS.