Battle in the Blood

One of the newest and most hopeful weapons in the fight against polio is a blood fraction called gamma globulin. Doctors have known for several years that it is a rich storehouse of disease-fighting antibodies. They also know that injections of it will reduce the effects of measles in children. Now there is evidence that gamma globulin may be able to attack and destroy polio before it gets to the nervous system and wreaks its paralyzing effects.

At a meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Manhattan last week, two researchers described the experiments that give doctors their new hope. Working independently at Johns Hopkins and Yale, Dr. David Bodian and Dr. Dorothy M. Horstmann had conducted almost identical tests and reached the same conclusion: there is a step missing in the widely held theory that polio passes directly from the alimentary tract to nerve fibers and thus to the nervous system. Drs. Bodian and Horstmann think there is a transient middle phase: that the virus goes from the digestive system to the blood stream, and from there, if not destroyed by antibodies, to the nervous system.

Chimps & Antibodies. Dr. Bodian began to suspect the old theory two years ago while analyzing a series of gamma globulin samples from human blood. He found that 80 to 90% of it contained antibodies that would attack and kill live polio virus. Such antibodies, he reasoned, could only come from a blood stream which had carried polio virus in the past.

Dr. Bodian tested out his theory on the lab's chimpanzees and monkeys. A few days after he fed them live polio virus, he found traces of it in their stools. Within 8 to 15 days, the virus showed up in their blood streams. Playing and chattering happily, the monkeys showed no signs of polio during this period. But after a few more days the familiar symptoms appeared and paralysis began to set in. At Yale, Dr. Horstmann got similar results.

Dr. Bodian carried his experiments a step further. A few minutes before feeding his monkeys live polio virus, he injected reinforcements of human gamma globulin containing polio antibodies into the animals' muscles. None of the monkeys came down with polio in its paralytic form.

Utah & Beyond. Encouraging as the experiments were, the immunologists kept their enthusiasm under careful check: gamma globulin seemed to have helped a few monkeys. What about children?

One test of gamma globulin in a polio area was made in Utah last summer. Some 5,000 children were given injections of the blood fraction, and another 5,000 were not (TIME, Sept. 10). The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis has never announced the results of that test because, it felt they were inconclusive. But this year the foundation is planning to spend close to $1,000,000 for a series of strictly controlled Utahs to learn more.

The foundation emphasizes that gamma globulin is still in the experimental stage and that there is not much of it around. They are worried that doctors will use up the supply before they know whether it really works. Moreover, even if it does work, its usefulness will be that of a temporary preventative--unlike a vaccine which may be effective for years. Said Dr. Harry M. Weaver, research director of the foundation: "The final goal has not yet been reached. Large-scale tests on many children still must be undertaken before we can hope for victory. It would be a cruel jest if people were led to believe that there existed a proven preventive for actual use this summer."

The best thing the U.S. public can do to help the polio fight this summer, said Dr. Weaver, is to stay away from gamma globulin, except where the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis directs its use in its controlled experiments.

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