Evening star., 1938-11-17


phrine," a suspension in peanut oil
of the wonder-working hormone
secreted into the blood stream by the
adrenal glands, whose effects last
for about 10 hours instead Of less
than an hour, was announced before
a joint meeting of the District Of
Columbia and Baltimore medical
societies here last night by DR.. Ed
mund l.. Keeney of Johns Hopkins
University Medical School.
1t is proving, he said, the most
potent remedy yet found for the re-
lief of chronic asthma and hives.
Whereas sufferers from severe forms
of asthma sometimes have to give
themselves six or seven injections Of
ordinary epinephrine a night to re-
lieve repeated attacks, a single in
lection Of the new material will give
an undisturbed nights sleep.
Epinephrine is the body's emer-
gency drug. Secreted into the blood
stream from tiny glands Just over
the kidneys. 1t initiates precisely the
activity Of the sympathetic nervous
system, increasing the sugar in the
blood. raising blood pressure and
heart rate, constructing the arteries,
causing sweating. etc. 1t is secreted
In extra amounts in fear or anger,
when the body must be ready to
fight or run. Injected into stopped
heart, 1t may start it beating again,
and has been credited literally with
bringing the dead to life. In very
ancient forms of life, in which the
adrenals took the place of a primi-
tive BRAIN" this epinephrine secre-
ton. many biologists now believe,
was the nearest approach to
thinking.
Lessened Effect Wanted.
With such functions in NatS:re it
naturally acts very rapidly and with
a tremendous kick. The effects dis
appear with proportional speed.
Otherwise the physiological states Of
anger or fear might persist in
definitely and the system soon would
be worn out. The big kick Of
epinephrine is one reason why
physicians hesitate to use 1t except
in emergencies or in very small
doses.
The great trouble has been, DR..
Keeney said, to find some carrier
which would hold back the synthetic
preparation of the adrenal secretion
used in medicine and feed 1t slowly
into the blood stream so that the
magnitude Of the effect would be
lessened and the duration prolonged.
This was recently accomplished with
another potent hormone, insulin, the
blood sugar reducer used in diabetes,
by mixing it with zinc compound,
and protamin zinc insulin Is con-
sidered one of the most notable
recent advances in medicine.
With epinephrine, DR.. Keeney said,
the problem was much more dif11cult
because of the extremely small mole
cule of the substance which cannot
easily be locked up in a chemical
preparation. The powdered ma
terial is insoluble in water which
does not delay its action at all.
Experiments we're conducted with
series of vegetable oils in which the
povder can be held in suspension
until peanut oil was hit upon as an
effective carrier with few PAD
physiological effects OF Its own.
Doesn't Cure the Ills.
The routine use Of epinephrine has
been in asthma and hives. Espe-
cially in the former malady an IN
lection under the skin Of about two
milligrams of the hormone IN sus-
pension brings very quick relief 10
one of the constantly recurring
bronchial spasms which wear down
the victim sometimes to the point OF
death. 1t does nothing, however, 10
preyent a recurrence of the Spasm
in a couple of hours. At night VIC
tins have to keep a supply Of the drug
by their bedsides and administer II
to themselves whenever they wake
from such a spasm.
The slow epinephrine is not SO
effective as the old drug in relieving
the spasm itself, so the practice has
been to give first one and then the
other. The average duration OF the
inhibitive effect on the spasm, DR.
Keeney has found, is about nine
hours, but in some cases it may per-
sist for as long as IL hours. The
practice now being adopted Is to
give patients two injections a day
night and morning. 1t has been
found that this will prevent spasms
altogether in many cases.
It cannot be considered IN any
respect a cure" for asthma, Dr.
Keeney stressed. As soon as the slow
epinephrine dosage is stopped the
spasms return as bad as ever. The
victim is dependent on the drug for
life, or until the asthma clears up
from some other cause. 1t may be
possible, however, to completely con-
quer any overt manifestations.
Experiments now are in progress
in the use of the new drug against
various forms of hay fever. whose
manifestations are often similar to
those of asthma, although the two