Acute Respiratory Illness in Volunteers Following Intramuscular Administration of Live Adenovirus

Abstract

Human volunteers injected intramuscularly with a pool of types 3, 4, and 7 adenovirus propagated in tissue cultures of human embryo intestine developed acute respiratory illness which began 2 or 3 days post-inoculation and lasted for 4 or 5 days. The illness was characterized by fever and inflammation of mucous membranes of eyes, ears, nose and throat with hyperplasia of submucosal lymphatic tissue of con-junctivae and pharynx and hypertrophy of cervical lymph nodes. The disease resembled the naturally occurring illness "ARD" or "febrile catarrh" with conjunctivitis as described for "pharyngoconjunctlval fever". Three volunteers experienced a febrile toxic reaction which followed several hours after inoculation of virus. All volunteers, except one who had previously received killed virus vaccine, showed marked increase in neutralizing antibody against all 3 types of virus and in complement fixing antibody. Antibody titers were diminished, on the average, 3-to to 6-fold by the end of the 6- to 8-month observation period. Significance of the findings in relation to reproduction of the disease following parenteral inoculation of virus and use of live virus vaccine against adenovirus infections is discussed.