Immunization Against Superficial Fungous Infection: II. Studies on Human Volunteer Subjects

Abstract

A vaccine from broth cultures of Trichophyton mentagrophytes was prepared by a technic designed to minimize destruction of antigenic material. This material was incorporated into a salve base and used for treatment of human volunteers. As controls, one group of subjects were treated with a similar preparation made from an Alternaria strain, and a third group with the salve base alone. The experiment was randomized with respect to the subjects and to the three salve preparations. After four weeks of treatment, the subjects were exposed to experimental infection by T. mentagrophytes . Statistical analysis of the results indicated that acquired resistance developed in those subjects treated with the T. mentagrophytes antigen. A method to immunize guinea pigs locally against infection with Trichophyton mentagrophytes was described recently by Keeney and Huppert (3). A mixture of intracellular and extracellular antigens from broth cultures of one virulent strain of T. mentagrophytes was prepared by a technique (3) designed to minimize alteration of the natural antigenicity of the living fungus. Guinea pigs were treated topically with this antigen for six weeks and then the animals were challenged with the homologous fungus. The immunized animals exhibited resistance to the infection and because of this an experiment using human volunteers was planned. The purpose of this article is to report on the results of the effectiveness of local immunization in humans against an infection with Trichophyton mentagrophytes. There were 2 parts to the experiment: 1) a small number of volunteers were immunized and infected and the results appraised; 2) the experiment was repeated on a larger number of volunteers according to a predetermined statistical design.