Acyclovir treatment of disseminated herpes simplex virus type 2 infection in weanling mice: alteration of mortality and pathogenesis.

Intranasal inoculation of weanling mice with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) provides an experimental infection that closely resembles disseminated and central nervous system HSV infections of human neonates. Intraperitoneal treatment with acyclovir (ACV) successfully reduced mortality even when therapy was begun as late as 2 days and oral therapy as late as 4 days after viral challenge. Treatment with ACV beginning on day 1 completely inhibited HSV-2 replication in lung, spleen, kidney, olfactory lobe, and cerebrum and decreased viral titers in the pons by 2-3 logs. Comparison of these data with our previous experiments using adenine arabinoside and adenine arabinoside 5' monophosphate indicates that ACV is more effective in the murine model of neonatal disease and suggests that ACV may also be more effective in treating the disease in humans.