Joseph E. Fields

Detection of viruses in large volumes of natural waters by concentration on insoluble polyelectrolytes

Abstract A method is described for recovering small amounts of virus from very large volumes of water. When poliovirus was added to large volumes of tap water, it could be recovered by adsorbing the virus onto thin layers of an insoluble polyelectrolyte (a crosslinked copolymer of isobutylene maleic anhydride), with subsequent concentration into small volumes of eluent for assay purposes. Virus contained in 25, 50, 75 and 100 gal of water was recovered with efficiencies ranging from 60 to 80 per cent. Poliovirus added to a 17,000-gal swimming pool was recovered with an efficiency of about 40 per cent by passing 300 gal of the pool water through a thin 3 mm polyelectrolyte layer 293 mm in diameter, with subsequent elution of the virus from the layer, and reconcentration into a smaller volume for assay.

Mechanism of increased antitumor immunity by a synthetic polymer

Abstract The antitumor effect of a synthetic polymer NED 137 was assessed and the mechanism of its action was explored. The polymer produces enhanced immunity to tumor and heterologous erythrocytes for at least 60 days after administration. If it was administered repeatedly at six weekly intervals to animals—postexcision of primary or recurrent tumor for four doses—the animals remained free of tumor for an indefinite period of time. The antitumor effect is related to a serum factor which is specific to the tumor with which the animal was in contact at the time of administration of the polymer. It was present in the Ig fraction of the serum. No acute or chronic toxicity was observed in animals. A Phase I clinical trial with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer was initiated in February 1979. The results with the first 94 patients are reported.

Freedom from transmission of hepatitis-B of gamma-globulin and heat-inactivated plasma protein fraction prepared from contaminated human plasma by fractionation with solid-phase polyelectrolytes.

Abstract. Plasma contaminated with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and shown by others to be infectious when injected in a dilution of 1:1,000,000 in chimpanzees, was fractionated by a solid‐phase polyelectrolyte (PE) procedure for its content of plasma protein fraction (PPF) and δ–globulin (immune serum globulin; ISG). Quantitative Ausria II radioimmunoassays showed that nearly half the HBsAg was bound by the PE and could be eluted at low pH, while the rest was found in the heat‐inactivated PPF. When the ISG was concentrated to 16%, the 13 mg/kg (comparable to a human dose) was injected intramuscularly in 6 chimpanzees, or when the PPF was heated at 60°C for 10 h and injected intravenously in 2 chimpanzees, there was no clinical or laboratory evidence of hepatitis B infection after 12 months, although 1 chimp of 2 who received the same material showed a borderline positive anti‐HBsAg antibody result on one of 52 weekly serum samples. Since the new PE fractionation method is essentially nondenaturing, and simpler than the classical ethanol procedures, it was important to establish the noninfectivity of the final products.