Franklin A. Neva

Propagation in Tissue Culture of Cytopathic Agents from Patients with Rubella-Like Illness.

Summary Viruses, apparently not heretofore described, have been isolated from the urine or blood of 4 patients with rubella-like illnesses. These agents were serially propagated in primary human amnion cultures and produced unique cytopathic changes characterized by the aggregation of nuclear material and the presence of inclusion bodies. Other attributes demonstrated included: filterability, failure to grow in embryonated eggs or produce disease in newborn mice, lack of hemadsorption or hemagglutination, interference with Sindbis virus, relative stability on storage, and destruction by ether. By inhibition of specific cytopathic activity, low but consistent rises in levels of neutralizing antibody were demonstrated in paired sera from cases of rubella. Moreover, patients from 5 epidemics of rubella, widely separated in time, exhibited serologic evidence of infection with the agents studied. These findings suggest that the viruses herein described may be responsible for a significant proportion of illnesses now clinically diagnosed as rubella, and, in particular, those occurring in epidemic situations.

Persistence of Antibodies to ECHO-16 Viruses Following Boston Exanthem Disease.

Summary Persistence of complement fixing and neutralizing antibodies to ECHO 16-like viruses was studied in 15 patients convalescent from Boston Exanthem disease. CF titers fell moderately within 1 or 2 years after infection, but remained demonstrable for 3 to 6 years. Levels of neutralizing antibody persisted without significant decline for a similar period of time.

BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RUBELLA VIRUS AS ASSAYED IN A HUMAN AMNION CULTURE SYSTEM.

We have briefly reviewed observations stemming from the finding that rubella virus may be grown in cultures of human amnion cells with the production of specific cytopathic changes. Rubella research is now in a phase of rapid development. While it is hoped that the information accumulated to date will not in the future be proven erroneous, it can be confidently predicted that the somewhat laborious and poorly standardized methodology now available for the investigation of rubella virus will undergo rapid refinement and simplification. Rubella will then move from the province of the research bench to the routine diagnostic laboratory.

Amebic meningoencephalitis--a new disease?

ALTHOUGH primary amebic meningoencephalitis has been previously described in the Journal,1 , 2 the events leading to recognition of this entity illustrate a common phenomenon of medicine — namely, ...

Failure of ACTH to protect against Acutely Lethal Toxins of Influenza Virus and Rickettsiae.

Summary ACTH did not reduce the acute toxic effect of influenza virus in mice or rats nor the similar action of the rickettsiae of murine and epidemic typhus in mice.

CONGENITAL RUBELLA AND THE ANTIBODY RESPONSE THERETO.

The teratogenic potential of rubella virus has been recognized since the report of Gregg (1); however, the mechanism whereby this virus exerts its deleterious effect on the fetus has remained undefined. The studies to be presented were undertaken before and during rubella epidemics in the spring of 1963 and 1964 in the Boston area, primarily to obtain information regarding the virologic and serologic status of the human fetus following maternal rubella. Rubella neutralizing ant ibody content in the sera of children with the rubella syndrome and of appropriate controls was determined (see Table 1) (2). The results demonstrate tha t a sustained antibody response may follow intra-uterine exposure to rubella virus, thus enabling retrospective serologic diagnosis in young children afflicted with rubella stigmata, at least in inter-epidemic periods. Further, as also demonstrated by Plotlcin et al. (3), the findings indicate that immunologic tolerance is not a feature of congenital rubella infections. These observations imply the persistence of rubella antigen until the period of immunologic competency, or that the first tr imester human fetus is immunologieally competent to rubella virus antigen.