Protection of neonatal mice against herpes simplex viral infection by human antibody and leukocytes from adult, but not neonatal humans.

Neither human immune globulin nor human mononuclear leukocytes (containing lymphocytes and monocytes) from herpes simplex virus (HSV) seronegative adult donors could protect infant C57BL/6 mice from a lethal HSV infection. In contrast, a combination of 5 X 10(6) leukocytes and a subneutralizing dose of antibody protected the mice. Leukocytes (5 X 10(6) or 1 X 10(7)) from neonatal humans and antibody could not mediate this protection. This is the first correlation between defective human neonatal leukocyte antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) in vitro and defective human neonate leukocyte-antibody protection against HSV infection in vivo in mice.