Comparative Immunology, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases 30 (2007) 197–210 Induction of humoral and cellular immunity against latent HSV-1 infections by DNA immunization in BALB/c mice Amir Ghaemi a , Hoorieh Soleimanjahi b,Ã , Taravat Bamdad b , Sara Soudi c , Ehsan Arefeian b , Seyed Mahmood Hashemi c , Massoumeh Ebtekar c a Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran b Department of Virology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran c Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Accepted 2 January 2007 Abstract Previously, we have reported that the injection of an expression vector containing Herpes simplex virus (HSV) Glycoprotein D-1 (gD-1) generated a significant antibody response in mice and protected them against HSV lethal challenge. We tested its potential to induce antibody and cell mediated immune responses in latently infected mice. Positive control group (KOS) and HSV gD-1 vaccinated mice demonstrated protection against a lethal ocularly challenge of 10 5.5 plaque-forming units (pfu)/eye of wild HSV-1 versus negative control groups. For neutralizing antibody titers, delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH), lymphocyte proliferation responses, clinical evaluation and survival following lethal challenge, no considerable difference was observed between mice vaccinated with DNA plasmid and those vaccinated with KOS. KOS-vaccinated mice demonstrated the ability to completely prevent latency whereas DNA vaccinated group showed some degree of protection and displayed less latency than negative control groups and had considerably high levels of IFN-g and strong CTL responses versus negative control groups. ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/cimid 0147-9571/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cimid.2007.01.002 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 88011001x3561; fax: +98 21 88013030. E-mail address: soleim_h@modares.ac.ir (H. Soleimanjahi).