Abstract:

Objective To determine the concentration of soluble PD-1 （sPD-1） in the sera of patients with recurrent genital herpes （RGH）, and to explore the significance of abnormal expression of sPD-1 in RGH. Methods Serum samples were obtained from 88 healthy blood donors, 74 patients with RGH including 34 cases of outbreak-stage RGH and 40 cases of stable-stage RGH. The serum level of sPD-1 was measured by monoclonal antibody labeling and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. Results A significant difference was observed in the serum level of sPD-1 between the patients with RGH and the blood donors （33.06 ± 17.5 μg/L vs. 53.07 ± 26.3 μg/L, P < 0.01） and between the patients with outbreak-stage RGH and those with stable-stage RGH （27.47 ± 12.9 μg/L vs. 37.71 ± 19.6 μg/L, P < 0.01）. Conclusions There is a low expression of sPD-1 in patients with RGH, which may be one of the mechanisms underlying the escape of HSV-Ⅱ from immunologic surveillance and development of immunological tolerance.

Key words: Flow cytometry