Med School Scientist's Experiment Combats Influenza Brain Damage

A Harvard Medical School scientist has made an experiment which may provide clues to understanding the functions of cell membranes in the body.

Dr. Samuel Bogoch, Assistant in Psychiatry, has succeeded in injecting brain ganglioside, a chemical constituent isolated from the brains of mice, into living mice to absorb two kinds of influenza viruses before they can reach their normal chemical receptors in the brain.

"Injection of either of the influenza viruses into the brains of the mice," Dr. Bogoch explained, "caused convulsions and death of the animals. But when brain ganglioside was injected before, together with, or in certain cases, after the viruses were injected into the brain, the neurotoxic effects were prevented."

This experiment has led Dr. Bogoch to believe that the isolated brain constituent is chemically either similar or identical to the natural receptor substances in the brain. It therefore attracts the viruses to itself and prevents their damaging the brain.