Correlation between detergent activity and anti-herpes simplex virus-2 activity of commercially available vaginal gels

Abstract Objective Herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) infections are almost exclusively sexually transmitted. The presence of vaginal gels during the sexual activity may have a significant positive or negative impact on the viral transmission. Therefore we investigated three off-the-shelf vaginal lubricants and one pH restoring gel to evaluate their impact on HSV-2 replication. Results HeLa cells were infected with untreated virions and virions incubated with the particular gels. The accumulation of viral genomes was monitored by quantitative PCR (qPCR) method at 24 hours post infection. Two of the tested gels had no significant effect on HSV-2 replication at the maximum applied concentration, while two had a strong inhibitory effect (~ 98% reduction of replication). The replication inhibitory effect was observed at various multiplicity of infection (MOI 0.4-6.4) and the two inhibitory gels were also capable of inhibiting the HSV-2 induced cytopathic effect on HeLa cells. The surface tension decreasing activity - a sign of detergent activity - was strongly correlated with the anti-HSV-2 activity of the gels (R 2 : 0.88). Our results indicate that off-the-shelf vaginal gels have a markedly different anti-HSV-2 activity that may influence HSV-2 transmission.