Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-25
SoundIess Sound Wave
Aids Vaccine Research
Filteroble Viruses Broken
In Two by Sonic Vibrations
By Thomos R. Henry

Ultrasound waves, breaking up par
ticles so small that 10000 laid end to
end would not span an inch, may result
in much more efficient vaccines.
The soundless sound waves are vibra-
tons in the air at the rate of million
cycles a second. The particles are the
filterable viruses. lowliest of organisms.
which are responsible for some of the
most dreaded human. animal and plant
diseases.
This possibility appears from expert
ments with the tobacco mosaic virus
just reported to the Navy by Drs. Nelson
Newton and John KiSsell of the Battelle
Institute. Their work was carried out
as an Office of Naval Research project.
This virus, although attacking only
a limited number of plants and chiefly
tobacco, acts in just the same way as
the inframicroscopic organisms which
produce such diseases as polio in man.
1t is. however, an easier organism with
which to experiment, the two scientists
point out.
ROdlike in Shape
1t is rodlike IN shape, and only few
millionths of an inch long. A single
virus, gaining access to plant tissue,
gives rise to millions in few weeks.
Its method of reproduction is unknown,
since this takes place only inside living
cells of the plant.
In nature five or six viruseS usually
are found joined together in straight
thread, or rod One effect of ultrasonic
waves of relatively low energy, it was
found, is to break up these linear for
nations so that each organism is on its
own. When much greater energies are
used, the virus organism itself tends to
break into two Unequal parts, always
breaking at a single weak spot.
When leaves were rubbed with
mixture of the fractured organisms the
same protective effect was obtained in
production of antibodies as by minute
doses of the actual virus. while the dan
ger of infection was, on several cases,
reduced close to zero.
Based on these results says the
report. sit would seem logical to apply
ultrasonic techniques in an attempt to
isolate those antigenic materials which,
when injected into the human or ami
NAL body. affect the production Of
disease-resisting antibodies. Preliminary
results of such work might indicate
that ultrasonic techniques have con-
siderable promise in the production of
superior vaccines."
Difficulty Described
The two scientists described the
extreme difficulty of getting amounts
of the virus in pure form. All viruses
must be grown on suitable living tissue.
in this case green leaves. The leaves
are ground up and the resulting pulp
squeezed through four layers of cheese
cloth. A dark brown juice is obtained.
This is placed in centrifuge rotated
at such speeds that particles of plant
leaves are removed from the liquid
The liquid then is centrifuged again
at speed producing separation force
of 10000 times gravity, which is suffi-
cient to separate the virus particles
from all the other constituents In rea-
sonably uncontaminated form.
It has been known for some time,
Drs. Newton and Kissell say in their
paper. that ultrasonic waves will
break up bacteria as well as small.
multicelled organisms, but it was not
hitherto realized that they could be
used against such tiny things as
viruses Despite its small size. the
virus is chemically an extremely COM
pick organism and the results may de-
pend on exposing to the surface certain
chemical constituents which play a
part in producing immunity.