Reactions of immune sera against the nucleocapsid, envelope and whole herpes simplex virus type 1.

Antibodies against (a) naked particles, (b) virus envelope, and (c) whole herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 were investigated. Immune rabbit serum against naked particles (and formalized naked particles) contained virus neutralizing (VN) antibody in a low titre as compared to the titre of complement-fixing (CF) antibody. Immune rabbit serum against the viral envelope had similar titres of VN and CF antibodies. In gel double diffusion precipitation tests, whole HSV gave two precipitation zones with antibodies against naked particles two zones with antibodies against the virus envelope, several zones with antibodies against whole virus and two marked zones against human convalescent serum. Viral nucleocapsid reacted with two zones with antibodies against the nucleocapsid and a faint zone with antibodies against the virus envelope. The envelopes gave two zones with antibodies against whole virus and a faint zone with antibodies against naked particles. Human convalescent serum gave a single precipitation zone with viral nucleocapsid and two zones with virus envelope and whole virus.