Protection and therapy of mice with acute and chronic experimental virus infections with propionibacterium granulosum kp-45.

The protection of mice against experimental infections with three different viruses (herpes simplex, vaccinia and mouse hepatitis) by Propionibacterium granulosum strain KP-45 and isolated cell walls was investigated. Pretreatment of NMRI mice with P. granulosum strain KP-45 3-7 days prior to HSV intranasal infection resulted in lowering of mortality rate (herpes encephalitis) from about 95% in controls to 15-30%. Pretreatment of NMRI mice prior to vaccinia virus infection also caused a significant decrease of the number of specific tail lesions. Infection of BALB/c mice with mouse hepatitis virus type 3 (MHV-3) resulted in development of acute infection with lethality in 4-6 days, while in fairly resistant C3H mice chronic infection manifested by loss of weight, uncoordination followed by paralysis and death in few months was observed. Pretreatment of BALB/c mice 3-7 days prior to MHV-3 infection lowered the mortality rate to about 25-30% while no effect was observed in animals injected with P. granulosum KP-45 on the day of virus inoculation. In chronic MHV-3 infections treatment with P. granulosum KP-45 was started 2 weeks after virus inoculation and was continued every 10 days. This resulted in a significant lowering of the number of paralysed mice and in a decrease of the mortality rate. Titre of MHV-3 recovered from livers of infected mice 4 months after virus inoculation was also significantly lower in animals treated with P. granulosum KP-45 or isolated cell walls.