Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S A Plotkin.
Eight patients with laboratory-confirmed herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection were cultured repeatedly during their pregnancies. Two of the 8 patients did not have typical HSV lesions. All patients became culture negative and all delivered normal infants vaginally. Because asymptomatic women can transmit HSV to neonates at parturition, it is important to do viral cultures as well as to clinically assess the mother.
Optimism for islet transplantation is based on reversal of diabetes artificially induced in animals by pancreatectomy or beta cell toxins. In naturally occurring diabetes, implanted islets might be destroyed by the etiologic agent of the original disease; e.g., virus infection, genetic factors, or autoimmunity. Genetically determined diabetes in obese mice, in fact, is resistant to islet transplantation. Since these mice are hyperinsulinemic and not similar to human juvenile onset diabetes (JOD), more appropriate models were sought, "BB" rats spontaneously develop a syndrome remarkably similar to human JOD. We have studied 279 BB rats. In 31 rats the sudden onset of severe hyperglycemia was observed. Sinc BB rats proved to be AgB2 on serological typing, WF (AgB2) donors were selected. Six hundred Wistar-Furth isolated islets were transplanted intraportally in 10 BB diabetic rats immunosuppressed with antilymphocyte serum. All 10 recipients became normoglycemic, remaining so for 1 to 6 monts. An additional animal model studied was virus-induced diabetes in mice, since viral etiology of human diabetes seems likely. DBA mice receiving encephalomyocarditis virus became severely and persistently diabetic. Eight received syngeneic fetal pancreas to the renal subcapsule and became normoglycemic. Removal of the graft 30 days later demonstrated viable islets histologically and resulted in recurrent diabetes. That virally induced murine diabetes and one spontaneous syndrome in rats which is similar to human JOD responded to beta cell implantation argues that this treatment will be effective in man.
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Three children exposed to the bites of proved or probably rabid animals were immunized with human rabies immune globulin and human diploid cell culture vaccine. There were no significant clinical reactions, and all three developed high levels of rabies antibody. The patients have remained well from four to 18 months.
A case of cerebral cysticercosis in an American child is described. The patient was only 2 years old and had never left the United States. Her symptoms began with febrile seizures and progressed to focal motor seizures. Cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis with eosinophilia, candle-guttering of the walls of the ventricles on pneumoencephalography, and a titer of 1:4,096 against cysticercosis antigen in her blood led to the diagnosis. Over a five-year follow-up period, the patient's course has been one of resolution of her symptoms, improvement in her electroencephalogram, and excellent seizure control with anticonvulsant therapy. Cysticercosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a child who shows CSF pleocytosis with eosinophilia, particularly if accompanied by focal seizures.
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We have demonstrated that newborn mice can be infected orally with herpes simplex virus type 2. Transplacental and transvaginal transmission of herpes simplex virus type 2 did not occur in our mice. Failure to produce natural transvaginal infection in mice may be explained by the relatively short period of exposure to the virus during parturition. These experiments demonstrate that high oral doses of herpes simplex virus type 2 can produce disseminate herpes neonatal infection in mice and therefore may be useful in future investigations into the mechanism and the treatment of this disease.
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A new type of rabies vaccine for human prophylaxis was developed by workers at the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. Vaccine is prepared from rabies virus infected tissue cultures of human diploid cells and is inactivated following concentration and purification of virus. Vaccine is being successfully used for prophylactic and postexposure treatment in humans with reduced number of doses and is virtually free from adverse reactions associated with the use of other types of rabies vaccines.
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