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Show Scientists Discover New Weapon In Heart Ills Battle A woman who died of pneumonia pneu-monia in 1933 may prove an important link in the future control con-trol of heart disease. The strange turn-about is the result of scientists scien-tists discovering that the destructive destruc-tive power of the streptococcus organism could be harnessed and used to save lives instead of taking tak-ing them. Twenty seven years ago physicians physi-cians at New York's Bellevue Hospital found that for some un-explainable un-explainable reason a woman patient's pa-tient's blood would not clot. Since she later succumbed to a massive strepticoccal infection, the researchers began working with the streptococcus organism to see what role it might have played in causing the blood condition. con-dition. After six years of work they isolated an enzyme called streptokinase strep-tokinase (SK), from the organism organ-ism which had the ability to start a comolex chemical reac- tion, eventually resulting in the dissolution of blood clots in test tubes and in experimental animals. ani-mals. In 1958 medical researchers, headed by Dr. Sol Sherry from St. Louis' Washington University, Univer-sity, reported successfully treating treat-ing 20 of 24 heart attack victims with a highly purified experimental experi-mental form of the drug. Although Al-though they. felt that SK had helped save the lives of the 20 patients, they could not categorically cate-gorically say that it had actually helped dissolve any blood clots. These researchers reported in 1959 that among 50 patients treated for various conditions with SK, the enyme had not had any harmful effect on body tissue. tis-sue. Proof of clot dissolution also came during 1959 when investigators investi-gators at New York University indicated that they were able to dissolve a clot in a blood vessel using purified SK. This was a medical first. Drs. Alan Johnson and Ross McCarthy reported in the September Journal of Clinical Clini-cal Investigation "that consistent and reproducible intravascular clot lysis can be produced in man," using SK to trigger man's built in anti-clot mechanism. They based their conclusion on work conducted with 26 human -f A 1 1-1 1 voiunieers in wnom Diooa ciois had been artificially induced. Thirteen persons constituted a control group which was not given any medication. The rest were diveded into several groups and given intravenous doses of SK in varying amounts and using us-ing different infusion techniques for prolonged periods. In no case did a clot dissolve among the control group. Among one group of SK treated subjects 100 per cent clot dissolution was achieved, and in no case did the clot return. However, somewhat less successful results were obtained ob-tained when SW was administered adminis-tered under other infusion conditions, con-ditions, the investigators said. An extremely complicating factor in carrying on this research re-search to date has been the difficulty dif-ficulty of purifying the enzyme. The strep organism produces in the neighborhood of 100 different differ-ent substances along with the SK and some of these can cause reactions re-actions in man. Until now it had been an almost impossible task to separate them. The purification of SK was accomplished ac-complished by Lederle Laboratories Labora-tories Division, which estimates that the half ounce of SK it has isolated for research at New York Universities has cost about $250,000. Intense research is now under way to try to refine the production process so that larger and more economical yields of the drug can be obtained. ob-tained. Lederle has invested more than a million dollars on enzyme research re-search over the past 12 years. Since 1951 a product (Varidase) has been on the market containing contain-ing a partially purified form of SK. Varidase has been used by physicians to help control inflammation in-flammation and swelling. - Although the research with purified SK is still extremely experimental, it may pave the way for better methods of dealing deal-ing - with atherosclerosis and thromboembolism, thanks to a case of pneumonia almost 30 years ago. |