Restriction endonuclease digestion analysis of DNA from viruses isolated from different sites of two fatal cases of herpes simplex virus type-1 infection.

Abstract

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) type-1 was isolated from a fatal case of herpes simplex encephalitis (case 1) and from a fatal case of disseminated herpes simplex (case 2). The virus was isolated from the lip lesion, the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe of the brain in case 1 and from a mesenteric node, myocardium and salivary gland in case 2. Restriction endonuclease digestion analysis showed that each case was infected with different substrains of HSV. The changes in band pattern in isolates from case 1 occurred in the "variable" region of the genome, showing that viruses with such variations can be isolated simultaneously from different tissues. The changes in band patterns in isolates from case 2 indicated the presence of two virus substrains, one in the mesenteric node and salivary gland and a second in the myocardium.