Immune-specific interferon production by peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes from patients with primary and recurrent oro-labial herpes simplex virus infections.

Immune-specific IFN (IFN) is produced by the peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes (PBML) of greater than 95% of HSV-seropositive humans with infrequent recurrences of herpes labialis [Green, Yeh, and Overall, 1981]. However, herpes virus-induced immune-specific IFN was produced by PBML from only 33 of 48 (68.8%) persons with frequent recurrences (2-12 episodes a year). Two of eight subjects with primary herpes gingivostomatitis also failed to produce immune-specific IFN during either the acute or convalescent phases of their initial HSV infection. These data suggest that some persons have a defective immune-specific IFN response that exists from the time of their primary oro-labial HSV type 1 infection. This defect may predispose to a higher frequency of disease in some individuals.