Antigenic activity of poliomyelitis vaccines undergoing field test.

Abstract

are of the opinion that lifelong immunity can best be provided through the use of a living attenuated virus for each of the three immunologic types and administered, preferably, by a natural route. If this is not a precise expression of the opinions of all whose predominant orientation is one way or the other, we believe it does convey the essential features of the two points of view and there are reasonable reasons for believing that either may lead to the solution of the practical problem of immunization of man. We have accepted the assumption that immunity is mediated principally, -or entirely, through the action of antibody. It might then be expected, in accordance with well established immunologic principles, that the presence of antibody either in the circulating blood, or within fluids bathing neural tissue-or the existence of a hyperreactive state of the antibody forming system, resulting from either natural or artificial immunization-might provide the modus operandi for effective immunity. The question then becomes whether or not a noninfectious vaccine can produce these effects, or do these effects result exclusively from contact with living virus? This question has been answered in part. It is now amply evident that the injection of noninfectious virus can simulate at least some of the effects resulting from infection with the living virus. The question that now remains is whether or not the kind of immunity that accompanies the serologic response to infection with living virus is the same or different from that which results from the injection of a noninfectious antigen. While it is true that the immune response induced by the infectious process results from multiplication of the living virus, the immune response to a noninfectious virus requires the administration of a sufficient quantity of effective antigen, given in such a way that the