Articles of Significant Interest in This Issue

Abstract

Absence of Signal Peptide Peptidase, an Essential Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Glycoprotein K Binding Partner, Reduces Virus Infectivity In Vivo Binding of glycoprotein K (gK) to signal peptide peptidase (SPP), an endoplasmic reticulum protein and a member of the -secretase complex, is required for herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infectivity in vitro. To determine how SPP affects HSV-1 infectivity in vivo, Wang and Ghiasi (e01309-19) developed SPP-inducible knockout mice. The absence of SPP reduced virus replication, latent infection, and infiltrates in the eye and trigeminal ganglia of infected mice compared with those in control mice. These reductions correlated with the interaction of gK and SPP. Thus, blocking this interaction may have therapeutic potential in patients with herpes stromal keratitis.