QUANTITY OF LATENCY-ASSOCIATED TRANSCRIPT PRODUCED BY HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS IS NOT PREDICTIVE OF THE FREQUENCY OF EXPERIMENTAL RECURRENT GENITAL HERPES

The role of the latency-associated transcript (LAT) in control of recu rrent herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection was investigated b y examining whether LAT concentration in vitro during productive infec tion or in ganglia during latency correlated with the frequency of rec urrent genital herpes. Clinical HSV-2 isolates from frequent or infreq uent recurrent genital disease produced comparable amounts of glycopro tein D and infected cell polypeptide 0 RNA, but the isolate from frequ ent disease produced about seven times more LAT. The guinea pig model of genital herpes was used to determine whether the quantity of LAT pr oduced during acute infection in vitro correlated with recurrence phen otype; the frequency of recurrent disease was similar for the 2 clinic al isolates. Likewise, there was no correlation between the recurrence phenotype of individual animals and LAT concentration in their gangli a. Thus, while absence of LAT may impair HSV reactivation and recurren ce, once a threshold concentration is exceeded, LAT has no further eff ect on recurrence frequency.