Undegraded human immunoglobulin for intravenous use

A report is presented on the development and the properties of a nondegraded human immunoglobulin preparation suitable for intravenous administration. Intravenous tolerance is achieved by elimination of anticomplementary activity through modification with beta-propiolactone. The natural antibody characteristics, such as antibody activity, molecular weight, and half-life, are retained. The findings presented open up new perspectives for an extension of the range of indication for intravenous immunoglobulin.

The effect of ethyl alcohol and beta-propiolactone inactivated vaccinia virus on the development of skin immunity and the production of hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies in guinea pigs, rabbits and monkeys

The efficacy of hemagglutinin containing preparations of vaccinia virus in eliciting skin immunity and hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies has been studied in guinea pigs, rabbits and monkeys. The preparations, grown on chorioallantoic membranes from chick embryos, have been tested both in the form of live vaccine and after inactivation with ethyl alcohol and beta-propiolactone. Statistical analysis of the results, comprising data from 200 guinea pigs, 80 rabbits and 100 monkeys, shows that there is a strong correlation between hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies and skin resistance, both when the anti-hemagglutinin is produced in response to live as well as inactivated vaccinia virus.

Influence of N2 or O2 on two alkylating agents in Neurospora crassa

Previous studies have indicated that the alkylating agent, 2-methoxy-6-chloro-9-(3-[ethyl-2-chloroethyl]aminopropylamino)acridine dihydrochloride (ICR-170), induces much more killing and mutation in conidia of Neurospora crassa treated in an atmosphere of N2 than in an atmosphere of O2. It was desirable to determine if a similar effect--more killing and mutation in N2 than in O2--could be observed with two other known alkylating agents, beta-propiolactone (BPL) and ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), in the same test system. Conidia of a heterokaryotic strain of N. crassa were bubbled with N2 or O2 during treatment with BPL or EMS. Forward-mutation was measured in the ad-3 region by a direct method. The results indicate that N2 or O2 do not influence the lethal and mutagenic activities of BPL or EMS during treatment of conidia. Hence the influence of N2 or O2 on the lethal and mutagenic activites of ICR-170 is different from the influence of these gases on BPL or EMS using the ad-3 test system in N. crassa.

Mutagenicity testing with Salmonella typhimurium strains. II. The effect of unusual phenotypes on the mutagenic response

The enhanced sensitivity of some Salmonella typhimurium strains to the mutagenic action of a number of chemicals appears to be due to the defect in the uvrB gene product and not to an inability to produce H-2-S or to the absence of formic acid hydrogenlyase which also characterizes these strains.

Effect of beta-propiolactone on infectivity and haemagglutinin of the BK virus

The effect of beta-propiolactone (BPL) on the infectivity and haemagglutinating properties of BK virus was studied. No virus multiplication was observed when Vero cell cultures were inoculated with virus treated with 0.1 per cent or higher concentration of BPL. On the other hand, treatment of BK virus with 0.1 per cent or lower concentration of BPL had no apparent effect on viral haemagglutinin. BPL at a concentration of 0.1 per cent could therefore be used to prepare BK virus haemagglutinin which contains little or no infectious virus. Inactivated haemagglutinin seems to be somewhat labile against freezing and thawing, but storage at 4 degrees C had no effect on it. Identical haemagglutination inhibiting antibody titres were obtained when human sera were tested with standard haemagglutinin or with haemagglutinin inactivated with BPL.