DRUG STIRS FAINT HOPE ON COLDS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 5

DRUG STIRS FAINT HOPE ON COLDS

(By

JANE E. BRODY)

A drug designed to curb a few of the viruses that cause the common cold has shown some promise in initial, small-scale tests in man.

One investigator said the effectiveness of the drug against one cold virus was “observable, blit definitely not very striking.”

The investigator, Dr Elliot C. Dick of the University of Wisconsin Medical School, said, however, that this was believed to be the first report Of even limited effectiveness of a drug to combat colds in man. Development of the drug was described by Dr John J. Boyle of Smith, Kline and French Laboratories in Philadelphia at a conference on antiviral substances sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences. The drug, which has a jawbreaking chemical name, has been dubbed for testing purposes “SK&F 30097.” It is being tested by several clinical research teams—with a few dozen volunteers in each study—-for its effectiveness in preventing infection by a half a dozen types of rhinoviruses, the largest group of cold-causing organisms.

Volunteers Treated In an already completed study of 41 volunteers by Dr Dick and Dr Donn J. D'Alessio at the University of Wisconsin, three grams of SK4F 30097 given daily for seven days was found to reduce the number of illnesses contracted by persons after they had inhaled a large dose of rhinovirus.

In the drug-treated volunteers who did get sick, the illnesses lasted for shorter periods than among those unprotected by the drug, Dr D’Alessio said in an interview. He concluded that, because of the high doses required and the drug’s limited effectiveness, “it is unlikely that the drug in its current form will be clinically useful.” But, he added, “it represents a step in a promising direction.”

Until recently, most efforts in cold prevention have focused upon the development of vaccines against coldcausing viruses. But vaccine work has been bogged down by the continuing discovery of new cold viruses.

More than 100 viruses are now known to cause, colds in man—and that many different vaccines may have to be developed to protect man against them. This problem has stimulated a search for drugs that would act against a broad spectrum of cold viruses. But the drug approach also has had its problems. A major difficulty, according to Dr Boyle, is the fact that no animal other than man is known to be-suscep-tible to cold viruses, which |are responsible for more than one half tiie acute illnesses that affect Americans each year. 1 ‘’lt’s a big jump, from tissue culture (a laboratory technique) to man,” Dr Boyle observed, explaining that without an animal model in which to pre-test compounds that show promise in the laboratory, human trials could not get off the ground.

Chimpanzee Test Then last year Dr Dick discovered that chimpanzees could be infected with rhinovirus, and although the animals suffered none of the symptoms that man knows as a cold, they developed high levels of virus in their blood streams.

Dr Dick tested SK&F 30097 in this living laboratory, with promising results. Later, scientists at the drug company found that the gibbon could also serve as an animal model for testing cold compounds. The gibbon is smaller, less expensive and easier to handle than the chimp, which requires five men to hold down while a sixth executes the experiment. Even though a rhinovirusinfected gibbon does not sneeze, Dr Boyle said he expected this small ape to speed the search for drugs to prevent—and perhaps cure—the common cold.—Copyright. “New York Times” News Service.