Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
1. When GDVII virus was injected into the brains of mice, subsequent intracerebral injections of mixed pertussis and diphtheria prophylactic significantly shortened the incubation period. Subsequent intramuscular injections of mixed prophylactic had no influence on the course of the infection.
2. Intramuscular inoculation of either GDVII virus or EMC virus results in a marked localization of paralysis in the injected limb. With GDVII virus, the localization probably arises from the use of the sciatic nerve route for entry into the c.n.s., and is unaffected by injection of substances into the opposite limb. With EMC virus, localization can be modified by injections into the opposite limb.
3. When GDVII or EMC virus was injected by a peripheral route other than intramuscular, intramuscular injections of vaccines or normal mouse brain suspension induced localization of paralysis in the injected limb.
4. Intramuscular inoculation of vaccines increased mortality in mice injected into the same limb muscle with GDVII virus. Within the limits tested the later the vaccines were injected relative to the virus, the greater was the effect.
5. When the vaccines used were more than a few months old, this facilitating effect was replaced by a protective effect. Mice injected intramuscularly with aged vaccines were significantly more resistant than the controls to GDVII virus injected into the same muscle.
6. Intracerebral inoculation of vaccines, and to a lesser extent other substances, increased mortality in mice which had received intramuscular inoculations of GDVII virus, by allowing virus to pass directly from the blood into the brain. This resulted in a predominance of cerebral symptoms when the vaccines were injected immediately after the virus, but not when the interval was lengthened to 48 hr.
7. The mode of action of modifying factors in neurotropic virus infections is discussed in the light of these results.
This work was done in the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, during the tenure of a grant from the Medical Research Council. I also wish to thank the Nuffield Foundation for their support of the virus research carried on in the Department.
I am most grateful to Dr F. K. Sanders for his advice and criticism, as well as for provision of technical facilities, and to Dr Donald Michie for assistance with the statistical treatment of the data, and for much other help.