Abstract
It is generally accepted that immune serum is of little or no therapeutic benefit in poliomyelitis, as well as in other filterable virus diseases. However, it may be of value prophylactically, but this has not as yet been fully demonstrated. Successful passive immunization against some virus diseases leads one to suppose that such protection may possibly be afforded against poliomyelitis when an antiserum of sufficient potency is produced. Numerous attempts1–4 with varied degrees of success, have been made to prepare an effective antiviral serum in large animals. The production of a potent antipoliomyelitic horse serum was first accomplished in 1929 in these laboratories 5 and at about the same time in England. 6 More recently, Howitt 7 and Schultz and Gebhardt 8 have reported exceptional response toward immunization treatment with poliomyelitic virus in the sheep, goat and horse.
These investigators used suspensions of infected monkey brain or cord, as antigen. This was inoculated into the animals frequently and over long periods. A resultant serum, upon clinical trial in the New York poliomyelitis epidemic of 1931, proved to contain a toxic factor (probably a nerve tissue antibody). Toxicity tests conducted by the author upon several such serums showed that 2 of them were highly toxic for monkeys in 10 cc. doses with fatal results in some cases within 8 hours following intraperitoneal injection. The toxic effect of one of these serums was also observed by Kramer. 9
The obvious need of a protein-free virus extract led to the successful attempt to purify virus emulsions by adsorption and elution. 10 Immunization of horses was then begun with such eluates. Three horses were selected and their serums tested for the presence of natural viricidal substance before treatment was begun.
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