Absence of Signal Peptide Peptidase, an Essential Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Glycoprotein K Binding Partner, Reduces Virus Infectivity In Vivo.

We previously reported that herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoprotein K (gK) binds to signal peptide peptidase (SPP), also known as minor histocompatibility antigen H13. Binding of gK to SPP is required for HSV-1 infectivity in vitro SPP is a member of the γ-secretase family, and mice lacking SPP are embryonic lethal. To determine how SPP affects HSV-1 infectivity in vivo, the SPP gene was deleted using a tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase driven by the ubiquitously expressed promoter. SPP mRNA was reduced by more than 93% in the cornea and trigeminal ganglia (TG) and by 99% in the liver of tamoxifen-injected mice, while SPP protein expression was reduced by 90% compared to the level in control mice. Mice lacking SPP had significantly less HSV-1 replication in the eye as well as reduced gK, UL20, ICP0, and gB transcripts in the cornea and TG compared to levels in control mice. In addition, reduced infiltration of CD45⁺, CD4⁺, CD8⁺, F4/80⁺, CD11c⁺, and NK1.1⁺ T cells was observed in the cornea and TG of SPP-inducible knockout mice compared to that in control mice. Finally, in the absence of SPP, latency was significantly reduced in SPP-inducible knockout mice compared to that in control mice. Thus, in this study we have generated SPP-inducible knockout mice and shown that the absence of SPP affects virus replication in the eye of ocularly infected mice and that this reduction is correlated with the interaction of gK and SPP. These results suggest that blocking this interaction may have therapeutic potential in treating HSV-1-associated eye disease.IMPORTANCE Glycoprotein K (gK) is an essential and highly conserved HSV-1 protein. Previously, we reported that gK binds to SPP, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein, and blocking this binding reduces virus infectivity in vitro and also affects gK and UL20 subcellular localization. To evaluate the function of gK binding to SPP in vivo, we generated SPP-inducible knockout mice and observed the following in the absence of SPP: (i) that significantly less HSV-1 replication was seen in ocularly infected mice than in control mice; (ii) that expression of various HSV-1 genes and cellular infiltrates in the eye and trigeminal ganglia of infected mice was less than that in control mice; and (iii) that latency was significantly reduced in infected mice. Thus, blocking of gK binding to SPP may be a useful tool to control HSV-1-induced eye disease in patients with herpes stromal keratitis (HSK).

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