Studies on herpes simplex virus and cancer

Abstract

Virus-induced polypeptides of cells infected by herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2 were investigated by analysis on polyacrylamide gels and by determination of their antigenicity. Some polypeptides, VP154 and VP134, had immunological reactivity common to both virus types, while others (VP175 and VP123) were type specific. Only the glycosylated polypeptides were able to induce neutralizing antibody. The expression of viral genetic information was studied in newborn mice infected with wild-type and ts mutant viruses; some mutants had become attenuated and had lost pathogenicity for newborn mice while others had not. From induction experiments in HSV=transformed hamster cells, it appears that detection of enhanced replication of ts mutants in human cancer cells would be an indication of resident HSV genetic information. Sera obtained from cancer patients were examined for antibodies to early proteins synthesized in HSV-infected cells. The method used was an indirect radioimmune precipitation test followed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis of immune precipitates. Cervical cancer patients had sera with a higher reactivity to early nonstructural polypeptides than to breast cancer patients or to matched healthy women. In contrast to the results with early polypeptides, little difference was detectable between the matched sera in their reactivity with a major capsid polypeptide, which is synthesized late in the infectious cycle.