Expression of immunity to intravaginal herpes simplex virus type 2 infection in the genital tract and associated lymph nodes

Herpes simplex virus type 2 is a human venereal pathogen which causes lethal neurological illness after intravaginal inoculation into BALB/cJ mice. In the present studies, we demonstrate that intravaginal vaccination with an attenuated strain of this virus, which possesses a partial deletion of the thymidine kinase gene, rapidly induced durable immunity to lethal intravaginal challenge with wild-type virus. Such immunity was characterized by a …