Prophylactic vaccine strategies and the potential of therapeutic vaccines against herpes simplex virus.

Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) infection is widespread and causes significant disease. A number of prophylactic vaccine strategies have elicited protective immunity in animal models, but no human vaccine has yet been effective. Asymptomatic HSV-1 infection is common, demonstrating that the immune system is able to control infection, despite failure to clear the virus. Therefore, therapeutic vaccination may be a viable strategy against HSV-1. This review will discuss the epidemiology, molecular biology, and immune response to HSV-1, prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine strategies, and the potential of future therapeutic HSV-1 vaccines to reduce or eliminate HSV-1 pathology.