The role of glycosphingolipids in natural immunity. Gangliosides modulate the cytotoxicity of natural killer cells.

Incubation of gangliosides with natural killer (NK) cells from various sources was found to inhibit NK activity in vitro whereas incubation of the same gangliosides with human or mouse lymphoma cells prior to their exposure to NK effectors resulted in a sharp increase in the NK sensitivity of the tumor cells. These effects depended on the oligosaccharide structure of the gangliosides and on the origin of the NK effector cells. The lysis of YAC cells by mouse splenocytes or of MOLT-4 cells by NK cells isolated from the peripheral blood of Syrian hamsters or humans was inhibited most strongly by pre-incubation of the effector cells with gangliosides GM3 and GD3 which are known to be elevated in the serum of tumor-bearing hosts.

Results of a study of the reactogenic and immunogenic properties of live anti-poliomyelitis vaccine.

The authors have studied the harmlessness and immunogenic properties of live poliomyelitis vaccine made in Leningrad from Sabin strains of low pathogenicity for monkeys. More than 20 000 children of pre-school (6 months to 3 years) and school age (7-14 years) were each given 100 000 tissue-culture infective doses of virus of types 1, 2 and 3, injected either in three stages at monthly intervals in the form of monovaccines, or in two stages, a monovaccine of type 1 being followed after a month's interval by injection of a divalent vaccine of types 2 and 3. The vaccination caused no symptoms of lesions of the central nervous system or other organs.