Plaques have been produced with the three types of poliomyelitis viruses on monolayer tissue cultures of monkey kidney and monkey testis. The number of plaques was proportional to the concentration of the virus. Each plaque originates, therefore, from a single virus particle, defined as the virus unit that is unseparable by dilution. The plaques are due to the specific action of the virus since they are suppressed by type-specific antiserum. Pure virus lines were established by isolating the virus population produced in single plaques. These derived virus lines had the same morphological, serological, and pathogenic properties as the parent strain. High titer virus stocks, with titers up to 7 x 10(8) plaque-forming particles per ml., were obtained.

https://rupress.org/jem/article-pdf/99/2/167/1185313/167.pdf

Plaque formation and isolation of pure lines with poliomyelitis viruses.

An in vitro technique is described for assessing the chemotactic activity of soluble substances on motile cells. Antibody-antigen mixtures when incubated (37°C) in medium containing fresh (i.e. non-inactivated) normal rabbit serum exert a strong chemotactic effect on rabbit polymorphonuclear leucocytes. Results are described which indicate that, when antibody-antigen complexes are incubated (37°C) in fresh serum, a heat-stable (56°C) substance (or substances) is produced which acts directly as a chemotactic stimulus on the polymorphs. This heat-stable chemotactic substance is not produced when antibody-antigen complexes are incubated in serum which has been heated at 56°C for 30 minutes.

https://rupress.org/jem/article-pdf/115/3/453/1080601/453.pdf

The chemotactic effect of mixtures of antibody and antigen on polymorphonuclear leucocytes.

The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics A Textbook of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics for Physicians and Medical Students. By Prof. Louis Goodman and Prof. Alfred Gilman. Pp. xiii + 1383. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941.) 50s. net.

The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics

background The incidence and severity of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia increase with age in association with a progressive decline in cell-mediated immunity to varicella– zoster virus (VZV). We tested the hypothesis that vaccination against VZV would decrease the incidence, severity, or both of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia among older adults. methods We enrolled 38,546 adults 60 years of age or older in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of an investigational live attenuated Oka/Merck VZV vaccine (“zoster vaccine”). Herpes zoster was diagnosed according to clinical and laboratory criteria. The pain and discomfort associated with herpes zoster were measured repeatedly for six months. The primary end point was the burden of illness due to herpes zoster, a measure affected by the incidence, severity, and duration of the associated pain and discomfort. The secondary end point was the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia. results More than 95 percent of the subjects continued in the study to its completion, with a median of 3.12 years of surveillance for herpes zoster. A total of 957 confirmed cases of herpes zoster (315 among vaccine recipients and 642 among placebo recipients) and 107 cases of postherpetic neuralgia (27 among vaccine recipients and 80 among placebo recipients) were included in the efficacy analysis. The use of the zoster vaccine reduced the burden of illness due to herpes zoster by 61.1 percent (P<0.001), reduced the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia by 66.5 percent (P<0.001), and reduced the incidence of herpes zoster by 51.3 percent (P<0.001). Reactions at the injection site were more frequent among vaccine recipients but were generally mild. conclusions The zoster vaccine markedly reduced morbidity from herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia among older adults.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa051016

A vaccine to prevent herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia in older adults.

Henle, Gertrude (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.), and Werner Henle. Immunofluorescence in cells derived from Burkitt's lymphoma. J. Bacteriol. 91:1248-1256. 1966.-Indirect immunofluorescence tests led to the brilliant staining of a small proportion of the cells in five different cultures derived from Burkitt's (African) lymphomas. The reaction was not restricted to the 17 sera from cases of this disease but extended to many sera from American individuals, whether healthy donors or patients suffering from a variety of illnesses. The incidence of positive sera increased with age from about 30% in childhood to > 90% in adults. Fluorescein-isothiocyanate-conjugated human gamma-globulins were suitable for direct staining of the same proportion of cells. The stained cells appeared to be in varying stages of degeneration, but cultural conditions leading to an increase in the cellular death rates failed to result in a rise in fluorescent cells. Several observations suggest that the stainable cells might be those which are seen to harbor virus particles under the electron microscope. Two cell lines derived from leukemic patients in this country also contained a small fraction of stainable cells but two others, and numerous primary human leukocyte cultures, gave consistently negative results. Attempts to relate the staining to known viral antigens have failed to implicate herpes simplex, varicella, cytomegalo, and reo viruses types 1, 2, and 3. The nature of the virus carried by the lymphoma cells as well as of the staining reactions remains to be determined.

Immunofluorescence in Cells Derived from Burkitt's Lymphoma

Epidemiologic Aspects Distribution of CMV Surveys of unselected newborn infants in four cities in the United States and England indicate that some 1 per cent enter the world with an active infectio...

The cytomegaloviruses: ubiquitous agents with protean clinical manifestations. II.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/109/2822/85.full.pdf

Cultivation of the Lansing Strain of Poliomyelitis Virus in Cultures of Various Human Embryonic Tissues

SummaryTissue culture preparations infected with agents originally derived from the eruptive lesions of cases of varicella and herpes zoster, as well as control preparations infected with the virus of herpes simplex, were studied by a modification of the fluorescent antibody technic. Employing the infected preparations as antigen, fixation of antibody from human sera derived from cases of varicella, herpes zoster or herpes simplex was detected by the use of a fluorescent antihuman gamma globulin conjugate. Antibody reacting with the varicella and herpes zoster antigens to an almost identical degree appeared during convalescence in serum specimens derived either from cases of varicella or from cases of herpes zoster. Antibody reacting with herpes simplex virus was demonstrated uniformly only in a group of sera derived from cases of recurrent herpes simplex. Immunologic evidence was thus obtained to support the thesis that the etiologic agents of varicella and herpes zoster have been isolated and propagated...

Fluorescent antibody studies with agents of varicella and herpes zoster propagated in vitro.

Patients at High Risk of Morbidity or Mortality from Varicella–Zoster Virus Recognition of the potential severity of varicella in immunocompromised patients dates from our post-mortem studies of tw...

Varicella and herpes zoster. Changing concepts of the natural history, control, and importance of a not-so-benign virus.

THE clinical entity referred to as cytomegalic inclusion disease, or generalized salivary-gland virus disease, has received increasing attention during the past decade. Concurrently, interest has shifted from the sphere of post-mortem diagnosis to the recognition of cases during life. This development followed the introduction of diagnostic procedures based on exfoliative cytologic studies1 2 3 and of technics for the isolation of the etiologic agents.4 5 6 Interest of clinicians initially was stimulated by the two case reports of Margileth7 and of Birdsong et al.,8 who, utilizing examination of urinary sediments to support the diagnosis, demonstrated that infants could survive the insults of neonatal cytomegalic . . .

Thomas H. Weller

Papers

The cytomegaloviruses: ubiquitous agents with protean clinical manifestations. II.

Cultivation of the Lansing Strain of Poliomyelitis Virus in Cultures of Various Human Embryonic Tissues

Fluorescent antibody studies with agents of varicella and herpes zoster propagated in vitro.

Varicella and herpes zoster. Changing concepts of the natural history, control, and importance of a not-so-benign virus.

Virologic and Clinical Observations on Cytomegalic Inclusion Disease