Ganglionic herpes simplex and systemic acyclovir
D. Pavan-Langston, N. H. Park and M. Hettinger
The therapeutic and systemic effects of acyclovir on ganglionic herpes
simplex virus (HSV) in mice were studied by varying the duration of
treatment and the time of removal of ganglia for co-cultivation after
treatment had ended. When treatment was started three hours after
infection, it had a significant therapeutic effect even when the ganglionic
culture was delayed 17 days after the end of acyclovir therapy. When
treatment was started 24 hours after infection, it had no significant
effect under the same circumstances. The treatment of established latent
ganglionic HSV for 15 days with acyclovir had a significant therapeutic
effect compared with control mice when ganglia were cultured two days after
treatment had ended, but this effect was lost by ten and 21 days after the
end of therapy. This indicates that acyclovir has a transient suppressive
effect on part of the viral ganglionic reservoir, but it also indicates
that these titers quickly reestablish themselves with the removal of drug
therapy.
