The Virus Killer

Serendipity is often the researcher's best friend. Thirteen years ago, Dr. Paul Gordon, a professor of microbiology and pharmacology at Chicago Medical School, set out to find a drug that would improve memory and increase learning ability. What he actually found, he reported last week to a Chicago meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, may prove even more valuable--a nontoxic, broad-spectrum agent that works against a wide variety of viruses.

The potential panacea is isoprinosine, a derivative of the chemical inosine found in muscle tissue. In 1958, Gordon began experimenting with inosine to lessen "absentmindedness" in aged rats and mice. The substance, which stimulates protein production by brain cells, worked. Gordon observed that the drug also prevented viral action by blocking the genetic information that viruses must carry into cells in order to reproduce themselves (TIME, April 19). Speculating that the drug's antiviral action might be a useful medical tool, Gordon began to search for a derivative that did not have inosine's unpleasant side effect, a prolonged depression. What he found was isoprinosine, a safe, and stronger antiviral agent.

Now approved for clinical use in Argentina, isoprinosine is under test at 15 institutions in the U.S. Gordon believes it could some day have tremendous impact on disease treatment. Unlike drugs that merely suppress the symptoms of viral disease, isoprinosine attacks the viruses themselves, preventing them from reproducing and thus reducing the scope of infection. So far, says Gordon, it has proved effective in tissue culture against the viruses that cause influenza and the herpes viruses responsible for shingles and chicken pox. But it still falls short of cure for man's most common ailment, for, as Gordon points out, "there is no such thing as the common cold." More than 20 different viruses are known to produce the upper-respiratory-tract infections that lead to fever and sniffles. Isoprinosine, though apparently effective against some more serious viruses, remains to be tested against those that cause colds.

Though bee and wasp stings are little more than a brief, painful annoyance to most people, they occasionally produce violent--even fatal--reactions in those who are allergic to insect venom. Severe sudden respiratory impairment and circulatory collapse are among the possible consequences. Victims must have prompt treatment to minimize their reactions. Even better, says Dr. Mary Loveless, a semiretired member of the Cornell Medical School faculty, those reactions may now be prevented. During the past two decade,,Dr. Loveless told the biological societies, she has treated more than 200 patients who are allergic to wasp bites by injecting them with small doses of wasp venom. The goal was to trigger the production of antibodies that would protect the patient against the poison. Dr. Loveless was stung at least a dozen times as she captured wasps in her garden, but the results were nonetheless encouraging. Of 121 patients who underwent planned stingings, none developed serious reactions; of 97 stung by accident, only five suffered any reaction, and all were minor.

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