Induction of Ocular Resistance to Vaccinia Virus by Typhoid Vaccine: Role of Interferon

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Abstract
Summary: Injection of live vaccinia virus into the anterior chambers of rabbit eyes caused corneal opacities, characteristic microscopic lesions of the corneal endothelium, and uveitis. These changes were accompanied by an increase in the amount of virus in both aqueous humor and ocular tissues. Single intravenous injection of 1 ml of typhoid vaccine, 3, 6 or 10 hr prior to virus injection, suppressed both the production of ocular lesions and virus multiplication. Intravenous injection of the vaccine was followed within 3 hr by the appearance of an interferon-like viral inhibitor (IF) in both blood and aqueous humor; in some cases the inhibitor persisted in the aqueous humor as long as 10 hr after the vaccine injection. Pretreatment of eyes with exogenous typhoid vaccine-induced IF also suppressed the production of vaccinial corneal lesions. Normal aqueous humor had no such suppressive effect, and nonspecific viral inhibitor in the aqueous humor, derived from blood, played no role in the ocular resistance. The results indicate that vaccine-induced ocular resistance to vaccinia virus was mediated principally by blood-derived IF in the aqueous humor.

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