Delayed administration of interleukin-12 is efficacious in promoting recovery from lethal viral encephalitis.

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) applied intranasally to mice initially infects the olfactory receptor neurons, and then spreads quickly to the rest of the central nervous system (CNS). Previously, we have shown that the cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12) has a significant survival and recovery promoting effect in mice infected with VSV when administered at the time of infection. The question of whether IL-12 is efficacious under the more clinically relevant condition of post-infection administration was explored. The data show that when IL-12 is administered post-infection, it is as effective as at the time of infection.