Local research to save human lives : Animals Used In Experiments

              This is the first of a series of four stories dealing with the saving of human lives through application of medical research. The Item is running this series at this time in view of the impending action by the City Council on a proposal to allow stray animals which would otherwise be put to death to be used for medical research. The work described in this series would not have been possible but for the extensive use of a wide variety ©f animals at medical research institutions in this city.
"New Operation Saves Lives."   '
"Mysterious Disease Traced to Cause."
"New  Drug  Proved Effective."
Headlines s-u c h as these frequently remind New Orleans newspaper readers that their city is one of the nation's great medical centers and that research laboratories here play an important part in the worldwide drama of medical discovery.
There is another kind of drama, however, to medical research. This is the behind-the-scenes story of the search which precedes every medical discovery.
Here, too, New Orleans research — particularly that of
the city's two medical schools —is playing a key role. Both the Tulane and Louisiana Staj^_JJniversitY_ me d i c a 1 schools are engaged in major research, and their projects cover the entire range of modern medicine.
A RECENT survey at Tulane, for instance, shows that pioneer work is being done in all three of the fields which present today's greatest medical problems in terms of human death and suffering— cancer, heart disease and mental illness. (Tulane's research in these three fields will be discussed in succee.d-ing articles.)
And here are some examples of the wide variety of other current Tulane research, which almost literally covers the body of man from head to toe:
One Tulane research team has spent several years on the track of the common cold and in the study of various viruses affecting the respiratory system.
These researchers have succeeded in isolating a virus which they have shown to cause many of the milder respiratory infections—generally called "colds." This virus has been labeled Virus 2060. It, together with, another closely related virus identified as the JH Virus, is be-
lieved responsible for a large percentage  of  all  cold-like . illnesses.
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RECENTLY, THIS team also opened the way to replacing the present vaccines against colds, "flu" and polio with a single vaccine which would protect against these and possibly other virus-caused diseases all at the same time.
Several drug firms are now at work on such a multi-purpose vaccine as a. result of Tu lane's demonstration that influenza viruses can be grown in tissue cultures made from monkey kidneys.
Formerly influenza vaccine was prepared from viruses grown in eggs. The Tulane work makes it possible for vaccine made from the tissue-grown influenza viruses to be used as a basis with vaccines from other viruses —which it has already been shown can be grown in tissue cultures—can be combined.
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A NEW vaccine against typhus is undergoing exhaustive tests for safety and effectiveness under another Tulane project. As part of this program, 125 volunteers were immunized with this vaccine early in 1952.
Recent follow-up tests indicate immunity in this group has persisted more than five years.
Further evidence of the vaccine's safety was gained in the inoculation of more than 10,000 persons in Peru, where typhus is prevalent. Tulane field studies are now under way in Peru to check on the program's effectiveness.
This vaccine, if successful* will have the advantage of "one-shot" long-lasting immunity. 'Vaccines now in use require several doses and periodic "booster" shots. *    *    *
POLIO   IMMUNITY  has
also been a special study project at Tulane for more than five years.
At present this research cent e r. s on a comparative study of the Salk vaccine and a new type of vaccine now being developed.
These studies indicate that the new "live virus'' vaccine may be superior to the Salk vaccine in preventing the spread of polio. The difference between the Salk and the newer vaccine is that the  Salk vaccine  is made from dead polio viruses, while the newer vaccine is made from live—but greatly weakened—strains of viruses.
The Salk vaccine, while it is definitely effective in protecting against the paralytic phase of the disease, apparently does not protect against the intestinal infection, which is important to the spread of