Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1) Uses the Rab6 Post-Golgi Secretory Pathway For Viral Egress.

HSV-1 infects a majority of people. It establishes a life-long latent infection, and occasionally reactivates, typically causing characteristic oral or genital lesions. Rarely in healthy natural hosts, but more commonly in zoonotic infections and in elderly, newborn, or immunocompromised patients, HSV-1 can cause severe herpes encephalitis. The precise cellular mechanisms used by HSV-1 remain an important area of research. In particular, the egress pathways that newly-assembled virus particles use to exit from infected cells are unclear. In this study, we used fluorescence microscopy to visualize individual virus particles exiting from cells, and found that HSV-1 particles use the pre-existing cellular secretory pathway, regulated by the cellular protein, Rab6.