Studies on the Serotherapy of Japanese B Encephalitis

Report V: Effect of Purified Serum Fractions

Abstract

Protective and therapeutic effects of purified serum fractions on the mice infected with Japanese B encephalitis virus were studied to obtain the following results.
1) Both SII+III-w and PII+m-w fractions of goat's immune serum which has high neutralizing titre proved highly effective for the prevention and treatment.
2) Gammaglobulin fraction of human adult's plasma is also effective if it had high antibody titre.
3) Gammaglobulin fraction of the adult's sera seems to be useful for practical purpose because the homologous sera had proved to be more harmless and more effective the treatment than the heterologous sera.
4) It is recommended to take prophylactic measures by administering either immune sera or γ-globulin of high potency at the peak of an epidemic of Japanese B encephalitis, based on the fact that, in mice, a tare increase in resistance can protect the mice from attack.
5) Treatment of Japanese B encephalitis can be achieved only by the early inhibition of the intracerebral propagation of the virus.
For this purpose, much are left to be investigated in the serotherapy, none the less, the serotherapy appears to be a very promising method.