Non-productive infection of human newborn blood mononuclear cells with herpes simplex virus: effect on T cell activation, IL-2 production and proliferation.

Proliferative responses by T cells from newborn cord blood stimulated with PHA or CD3 were reduced following infection with live (but not killed) herpes simplex virus in vitro although activation (measured by calcium flux) and IL-2 production were unaffected. The impairment of proliferation was not reversed by exogenous IL-2, phosphonoacetic acid, indomethacin or anti-alpha or anti-gamma interferon antibodies. HSV DNA was detected by hybridization in DNA extracted from unseparated MNC and from subsets sorted for CD3+ and for HLA DR+ expression. HSV DNA replication was not detected by thymidine uptake and only small amounts of virus were recovered in an infectious centre assay, suggesting that infection was non-permissive. Nevertheless, in-vitro synthesis of a limited range of HSV proteins including ICP4 was detected by metabolic labelling.