Word: antiserums
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Chicken pox is not a severe threat to most children, but it can be fatal to newborns and to thousands of youngsters whose natural immunity has been weakened by chemotherapy for diseases such as leukemia. Until recently, the only protection against chicken pox was an antiserum derived from the blood of patients recovering from the virus, since antibody levels are unusually high during convalescence. Locating such people is costly and difficult, so supplies were always scarce...
...concentrate chicken pox antibodies from the blood of healthy people. The procedure is similar to that used to extract gamma globulin for treatment of those exposed to rabies and hepatitis. Called VZIG, for Varicella-Zoster Immune Globulin, after the virus that causes chicken pox and shingles, the antiserum became available through the American Red Cross blood centers last week. The first supplies will go to vulnerable newborns and children with leukemia or weakened immune systems; a dosage provides immunity for about six weeks. But VZIG is not being recommended for all children. Pediatricians still believe the best way to develop...
...genetic material-possibly no more than a single gene-is somehow attached to a chromosome other than the usual Y. The proof of this aberration came from an immunological experiment; white blood cells from an XX male were mixed -and then reacted-with a test antiserum. That reaction was confirmation of the presence of the so-called H-Y or "male" antigen...
...chemically different from all previously identified mammalian viruses. Gardner still feels a "small nagging doubt-the remote possibility that it's a strange new type of cat virus." To rule out this possibility, the researchers plan an additional series of laboratory experiments, including attempts to produce viral antiserum from guinea pigs and rabbits. The antiserum could then be used in human cancer tissue to test for the presence of the newly discovered virus...
...chemistry the Russians have pioneered in the preparation and use of blood plasma, in synthetic rubber, photochemistry, explosives, helium, winter lubricants for tanks and planes. Dr. Wendell M. Stanley, famed virus investigator of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, told of a new Russian antiserum that has given the best results yet in preventing influenza. Soviet scientists have found ways to extract iodine cheaply from the foul waters of oilfields, sugar from watermelons, vitamin C from pine-tree needles for hungry Leningrad. Important contributions have been made to molecular physics, optics, electronics...