Herpes simplex viruses type 1 and type 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2) are amongst the most common human viral pathogens. While the majority of HSV seropositive individuals are asymptomatic, a nonnegligible number of symptomatic individuals are anguish from many recurrences per year and need treatments. In addition, HSV-2 was associated with increased risk of HIV infection. There is currently no approved herpes vaccine in the market that treats and/or prevents future outbreaks. The understanding of the protective immunity controlling herpes infections is critically required for the development of an efficient therapeutic vaccine. Immune cells functional impairment has been observed in acute and latent herpes infection at many levels including abnormal antigen presentation in the periphery and in the sensory ganglia, resistance of latently-infected neurons to apoptosis, unbalanced immunoregulatory, T-cell function, and deregulation of Th1/Th2/Th17 axes. In this special issue, we invite authors to submit original research and review articles highlighting the recent advances in herpes immunity and herpes immunotherapeutic approaches. We welcome papers that seek to define immunoregulatory and effector properties of T-cells and dendritic cells to provide new insights as to their potential for clinical use. We are interested in articles that explore salient aspects of protective immunity throughout HSV latency, reactivation, ocular and genital herpetic disease, and negative immunosynergy between HSV and HIV. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Innate and adaptive immunity to ocular and genital herpes infections
• Impairment of dendritic cells and T-cells function in HSV infections
• New animal models to study ocular and genital herpes immunity
• Identification of new herpes antigens CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell epitopes
• Preclinical and clinical trials with novel antigen-specific based vaccine and immunotherapeutic strategies
• Negative immunosynergy between HSV and HIV