ASSESSMENT OF ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY OF LACTOBACILLUS RHAMNOSUS AGAINST HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS TYPE II

High prevalence of urogenital infections among women and the increasing emergence of drug-resistant organisms are a challenging topic. Due to this background, it is reasonable to consider probiotics for combating the urogenital infections. This study is an attempt to evaluate the effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus against Herpes Simplex Virus Type II.

Within donated lactobacilli, biochemical and molecular characterization was carried out to find Lactobacillus rhamnosus isolates. Then to evaluate how cell-free supernatant (CFS) of Lactobacillus rhamnosus may affect the pathogenesis of herpes simplex virus type II, a plaque formation counting test was done on HeLa Cells by plaque-forming assay.

The supernatant of Lactobacillus rhamnosus culture significantly reduced plaque formation by herpes simplex virus II and almost the same results were obtained for standard strain. The inhibitory effects of the two supernatants were independent of H202 or H+ secretion by candidate lactobacilli, but the result was more reasonable for wild type in comparison to the standard strain of lactobacillus rhamnosus.

Considering the most effective inhibitory results (6h before virus contamination) and also by probable in vivo generalization of result, it is more possible to consider vaginal microbiome as an inhibitor for initial steps of viral attachment. Otherwise, when HeLa cells were successfully contaminated by HSV II, the inhibitory result of lactobacilli was reduced. A variety of mechanisms may be responsible for interruption in viral-host cell interaction, virus neutralization, and post-infected intracellular viral procedures.