Vaginal HSV-2 MS challenge of C57BL/10 mice immunized with a UV-0ΔNLS vaccine or a live-0ΔNLS vaccine.

Mice were treated with 2 mg medoxyprogesterone 7 and 3 days prior to vaginal HSV-2 challenge. On Day 70, mock-, UV-0ΔNLS-, or live-0ΔNLS-immunized C57BL/10 mice were challenged with 500,000 pfu per vagina of HSV-2 MS. (A) Mean ± sem HSV-2 MS shedding from mouse vaginas at times post-challenge (n = 12 per group). The dashed line denotes the lower limit of detection of the plaque assay. A single asterisk (*) denotes p < 0.05 and a double asterisk (**) denotes p < 0.001 that HSV-2 MS shedding was equivalent to mock-immunized control mice on that day, as determined by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc-test. (B) Representative examples of perivaginal disease on Day 8 post-challenge in mice immunized with the UV-0ΔNLS or live-0ΔNLS vaccines. (C) Mean ± sem of disease scores in mice on Day 8 post-challenge. Regarding survival frequency, a single asterisk (*) denotes p < 0.05 and a double asterisk (**) denotes p < 0.001 that the frequency of survival was equivalent to mock-immunized control mice, as determined by Fisher's Exact Test.