Two patients on prolonged steroid therapy developed meningitis due toCryptococcus neoformans.The first responded satisfactorily to treatment with amphotericin B, both initially and again following relapse. The second died shortly after treatment was begun. Pathogenicity studies suggest that the strain isolated from the fatal case was the more virulent.Cryptococcal meningitis probably occurs more often in Britain than is generally appreciated, and this possibility should be remembered when investigating patients with obscure forms of meningitis; if not, then the correct diagnosis may not be made. Attention is drawn to the increasing number of recently reported cases of this disease which have been associated with long-term steroid therapy.
SUMMARYThe optimal conditions for an immunofluorescence assay in HEp2 cells of a strain of foamy virus were investigated. Adsorption for 2 hr was followed by incubation at 37 ° for 65 hr. The validity of the assay was established and it was shown to be as sensitive as titration of cytopathic effect at limit dilution. The sensitivities of BHK 21, HEp 2, RK 13 and vervet ceils to foamy virus were compared and distribution of virus antigen in HEp 2 cells at various stages of infection were investigated.
The antiviral drug methisazone (N-methylisatin ,B-thiosemicarbazone) was tested for its effect on immune responses to sheep erythrocytes and on hemopoietic colony-forming cell (granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cell) responses to complete Freund's adjuvant in mice. Suppressive activity was demonstrated in both systems, the immune system being more readily and more consistently susceptible. Evidence is presented which suggests that the insoluble particulate form of the drug has both stimulatory and suppressive effects on the colony-forming cell system, whereas the soluble form is only suppressive. Methisazone increased the mortality from ectromelia in adjuvant-treated animals.
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