BLOOD-BORNE VIRUS-LIKE AGENTS IN HODGKIN'S DISEASE, OTHER MALIGNANCIES, AND SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Abstract

The studies reported here embody a new principle in technical methods for detection of hidden viral infection as applied to certain disease categories. The technique is based on the long known observation that the red blood cell can adsorb to its surface a large variety of viruses (1) and virus-like agents and may thereby become the vehicle of their transport in the circulating blood (2). Red blood cells circulating innumerable times through diseased tissue may be held to pick up with each successive passage an additional "load" of viral material. An illustrative parallel may be drawn with the selective affinity of certain ion-exchange reins for specific non-living molecules. Repeated perfusion of the tissue with the same blood cells multiplies their chances of accumulating a relatively high surface concentration of free virus. At this stage the virus may elute spontaneously into the serum or into a selected suspending medium which can be inoculated without further treatment into chick embryos, tissue cultures, or other virus media.