Intradermal doxorubicin reduces ganglionic reactivation of latent herpes simplex virus in mice after pretreatment with hypertonic saline.

Recurrent lesions from herpes simplex virus (HSV) occur after reactivation of latent HSV in neurons of sensory ganglion, axonal transport of reactivated virus, and HSV replication on the skin. A potential treatment strategy is to inject epithelial sites of frequent recurrences with anti-viral or cytotoxic agents that are taken up by nerve terminals and transported by axoplasmic flow to latently infected ganglionic neurons. Doxorubicin is transported by nerves and destroys the corresponding nerve cell bodies, but earlier attempts in HSV animal models required intraneural injection to eliminate HSV infection and this treatment destroyed the nerve and large portions of the ganglion. The present study used intradermal doxorubicin in latently infected mice that had been inoculated with HSV by the lip route and passively immunized at the time of inoculation. As found previously, doxorubicin injection in the lip 2 or more months after HSV inoculation did not eliminate HSV latency as evaluated by recovery of virus from trigeminal ganglionic explants. However, when hypertonic saline was injected in the same site 24 hr prior to doxorubicin, there was a 55% reduction of positive ganglionic explant cultures. Edema from the hypertonic saline may increase access of doxorubicin to nerve terminals. This technique with hypertonic saline, which has also been used to enhance virulence of HSV skin innoculation, may have general application of increasing axoplasmic transport of drugs or biologicals. Skin toxicity may preclude doxorubicin use for HSV recurrences in patients; however, the results of this study support the concept of anti-HSV treatment via retrograde axoplasmic transport. J. Med. Virol. 70: 263–266, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.