Immunity in latent Herpes simplex virus infection

Immune responses against productive Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and/or Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) (HSV) infection together with associated immune escape mechanisms are to a great degree understood. Due to a limited RNA expression and lacking a convincing evidence for production of virus proteins during latency, HSV in latently infected neurons had been for a long period considered invisible to immune system. This review analyzes currently accumulating data indicating an important role of immune response to HSV-1 latency and/or to early steps of HSV-1 reactivation process. Although this review focuses on HSV-1, it is likely that general concepts apply to both HSV-1 and HSV-2, since they share a great deal of similarity in their biological features including a high degree of sequence similarity at the nucleic acid level.