xt7xd21rk57x https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7xd21rk57x/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Kentucky University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies 1983 volumes. Call Number: LD2762.9 .K38c. Accession Number: 2018ua049 journals LD2762.9 .K38c English Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection University of Kentucky Odyssey Magazine Research -- Kentucky -- Periodicals Education -- Research -- Periodicals Research -- Kentucky Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Fall 1983 text images Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Fall 1983 1983 1983 2026 true xt7xd21rk57x section xt7xd21rk57x (

 

 

II I.
I
’I I

 

 

  

Kinkead Hall, University
of Kentucky (005 7),

Lexington, Kentucky
40506

James Y. McDonald, Executive Director

Wesley B. Leach, Ph.D., Associate
Executive Director

Beverly lsaacs, Staff Assistant

William D. Ehmann, Ph.D., Associate
Dean for Research
Barbara Coleman, Staff Assistant

Edward Churney, Manager
Jeannie Taylor, Programmer Trainee

Susan H. Donohew, Manager/Editor

Tawny R. Acker, Staff Writer

Anne M. Coke, Publications
Assistant/Staff Assistant

Amy Buxton, Student Intern

William F. Schweri, Head/Senior
Professional Associate

Iudy Beck, Staff Assistant

Margot McCullers, Professional
Associate I

Gerald Goldberger, Ph.D., Senior
Professional Associate

Mimi Neal, Staff Assistant

Ada Sue Selwitz, Professional
Associate 111

Andy Seybert, Ph.D., Faculty
Associate

Gail Wolford, Graduate Associate

Ted Waldo, Director

Penny Allen, Proposal Preparation
Specialist

Pat Roe, Staff Assistant

Fred B. Mesler, Contract Officer

Wilma Pofahl, Staff Assistant

R. Scott Seymour, Proposal
Preparation Specialist

Jack Supplee, Director

Susan Aylward, Project Administrator

Deborah Davis, Project Administrator

Shawna O'Brien, Staff Assistant

George Dundon, In, Project
Administrator

Kathy Wells, Staff Assistant

  
 

g

 

Odyssey is a magazine published
twice yearly by the University of
Kentucky Research Foundation under
the auspices of the Vice Chancellor
for Research. Each issue of Odyssey
describes only a few of the many
University of Kentucky research
projects underway in a variety of
fields.

Requests for permission to reprint
material and readers comments
' we regarding Odyssey are welcome and

' ' should be sent to the Editor,
Publications Office, University of
Kentucky Research Foundation,
University of Kentucky, (0057),
Lexington, Kentucky 40506, Phone
606-257-8297.

Editor: Susan H. Donohew

Designer: Jim Foose

Writers: Tawny R. Acker, Maria
Braden, Michael]. Kirkhorn,
Betty Tevis

Publications Assistant:
Anne M. Coke

Student Intern: Amy Buxton

Printing: U. of Ky. Printing Services

 

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U

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Unlverslty Archives
N‘iargnret l. King Library - North
Uriveniiy oi Kentucky
itxlaglon, Kentucky 40506

 

An Emphasis on Industry

 

Reclaiming the Land

 

  

Tracking and Cloning Enzymes
Affecting our Immunity

 

 

The Flying Taxicabs
for Plant Viruses

 

 

  
  
 
   

  

A Virus Called Herpes
I'm Mad All The Time, Sad All The Time
Who Contracts "Sexual Leprosy"?

 

  
   
    
    
   
 
    
 

‘\“ .9,
; é
a "°

fan"
The All-But-Ignored Elections

 
     

 

 

Switching Cells on to Nerve
and Limb Regeneration 16

Growing New Wings

 

 

An Art Sleuth on a Trail Four Centuries Old ;

Research Briefs
A Kentucky/ Texas Endeavor
Vitamin Research

 
   
     
   

 

 

Directory

 

  

The amount of industry supported research at the University of Kentucky
could double within the next few years. Industry sponsored research currently
accounts for three percent of all externally sponsored research at UK; however,
within the next 10 years that percentage could approach 10 percent.

The anticipated increase reflects a national trend for universities to turn toward
industry for research support. During the past four years, this has become
increasingly evident in both east and west coast universities and in private and
land grant schools. Recent multi-million dollar agreements have given impetus to
this trend.

“Traditionally the University of Kentucky has felt that as a state university it
has had an obligation to work with industry, particularly in projects important
to the state,” says Executive Director of the UK Research Foundation James Y.
McDonald. ”But it has also been traditional for industry to support more applied
research as opposed to basic research and, generally speaking, UK has felt that its
role was more in the realm of basic than applied research. Of course, there are
some notable exceptions within the UK structures; the colleges of Agriculture, !
Engineering, Medicine and Pharmacy have always worked closely with industry
to significant degrees and often in the applied end of the spectrum. In fact, it is in
these areas that we expect industry support to increase—building on strength, as
it were. But we hope that the increase will not be limited to these areas.”

Industry supported research accounts for approximately 2.5 percent of UK's
College of Pharmacy's funded research says Dr. Harry Kostenbauder, associate
dean for research in the College of Pharmacy. ”We have been involved in
industry supported projects since about 1969 and think that our support will
increase.”

In the College of Agriculture industry support also accounts for approximately
25 percent of funded research. This amount includes grants and gifts. “Industry
support supplements and complements our federal and state funded basic
research programs and experimental stations,” says Orin Little, associate dean for
research in the College of Agriculture.

For the most part, the industry sponsored research in these areas is in the form
of specific grants for specific projects, and in many cases the industry support
was only available to UK through personal contacts between faculty and industry
personnel. Although this approach has been successful, UK hopes to broaden the
effort and to build on the record of success that has been established largely
through the efforts of individual faculty.

“The type of university/industry research agreements we are expecting to see in
the future are those of a different magnitude,” says Vice Chancellor for Research
Wimberly Royster. “It could involve individual support of individual faculty, but
more than likely it would involve support of a program in one of the natural
sciences, health sciences and engineering, involving faculty members from a
variety of schools conducting related research.”

In the past UK has received a large gift from Ashland Oil Corporation, as well
as support from tobacco companies that have allowed UK to establish visiting
professorships and recruit research assistants. These kinds of university/industry
sponsorship agreements do not contain the expectation of a certain outcome or
product, although, eventually industry will benefit from whatever kind of
research it supports at the university.

“There is no doubt that industry sponsored research is one of the high
priorities in UK's research plans,” Dr. Royster says. '

Several current university/industry sponsored projects are featured in this issue
of ODYSSEY. For example, the article entitled “Reclaiming The Land” concerns
research sponsored in part by Peabody Coal Co. “The Flying Taxicabs for Plant
Viruses" is a project funded by grants from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the
R.]. Reynolds Tobacco Co. It discusses methods under study to protect
agricultural land from the devastating effects of plant infection which is spread
by aphids. “A Kentucky/ Texas Endeavor” describes a collaboration between
Hahn 8: Clay Company of Houston, Texas and several of the UK engineering
faculty and ”Vitamin Research” concerns a study of vitamins A, C and E which
is funded in part by a grant from Hoffman La-Roche.

Industry collaboration, as pointed out, is not new to our campus but for now,
and in the coming years, it is our intention to assist in providing an atmosphere
where such partnerships can grow and become an even more significant part of
the University of Kentucky research program.

VK

fig...

illustration by Jim Foose

    
  
  
   
   
  
   
    
    
    
  
   
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

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fertility.”

illustration by Jim Fonse

Reclaiming The Land

 

For more than a decade now,
Richard T. Barnhisel has been
working quietly to disprove the

notion that stripmined land cannot be

restored to full productivity. If his
reclamation experiments in Western
Kentucky continue to succeed, it will
be due to his ability to combine
scientific understanding with ordinary
"horse sense.”

Barnhisel, professor of agronomy at
the University of Kentucky, began to
work on reclamation at a time when
the consensus was that reclamation

 

was ”somewhat hopeless.” But
Barnhisel and his associates—
including representatives of mining
companies—found that much of the
pessimism was unfounded.

”We found that by applying
farming technology—-ordinary horse
sense—that growth of grasses on
stripmined land could be promoted,"
he said. ”That meant paying attention
to the right seed, to timing and

By Michael Kirkhorn

It also meant paying closer
attention to the techniques used in
preparing mined soil for reclamation.
"Traditionally," Barnhisel said,
”stripmined land is bulldozed and
flattened almost as hard as a floor.
So they got fifty percent runoff. They
couldn’t keep water on the soil
because it had a rock pavement
surface.

”We went in with a disk harrow,
roughened the land and ripped it on
the contour,” he said. This
combination of ploughing, ripping
and applying phosphates to the mined
land dramatically improved the
growth of grasses. It also attracted
increasing amounts of attention from
mining companies, who, Barnhisel
said, had been ”convinced that
environmentalists were right" in their
bleak assessment of the prospects for
effective reclamation.

Barnhisel has found, among other
things, that not all stripmined land in

  
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Western Kentucky is too acidic to be
reclaimed for agriculture. ”Some
spoils are acidic, some are not,” he
observed. A more common problem
is that mined lands are “very low in
phosphorus—this is the limiting
factor in plant growth.”

Barnhisel said that he has received
about $1.5 million to support his
research over the last decade. Much
of the money has come from state
and federal grants, but he estimates
that the Peabody Coal Co. provided
about one fourth of his research
money and a lot of technical support.

  

PECLAIMING THE LAND
CONTINUED

As the coal companies begin to mine
increasing amounts of prime
agricultural acreage—land which the
federal government will require be
restored to its premining
productivity—Barnhisel's research
becomes more and more important to
them.

seeded areas. Poor planning or
incorrect choices, as well as failure to
properly complete any of the above,
could result in total or partial failure
of the reclamation project. All of
these factors are equally important,
and their effects upon ultimate
vegetation establishment and long
term maintenance are interrelated.”
Obvious, perhaps, but the sort of
comprehensive attention Barnhisel has
devoted to reclamation was
uncommon in Western Kentucky

As coal companies begin mining
increasing amounts of prime
agricultural acreage—land which the
federal government will require be
restored to its original productivity—
Barnhisel’s research becomes more and
more important to them.

The research also has been
beneficial for his students, about 15
of whom have received masters
degrees in reclamation. As he runs
down the list of students, the rippling
effect of his research becomes
evident: one student is in Thailand,
applying Barnhisel's reclamation
techniques to family-owned mines;
one is with the Tennessee Valley
Authority; another works for the
United States Soil Conservation
Service; several are studying for
doctorates. ”Whether or not they go
into reclamation for their careers,
they will have had the opportunity to
do some research in this important
area and to solve some problems,” he
said.

One of Barnhisel's earlier
collaborators was UK graduate
student James L. Powell, who was
hired by Peabody and made
reclamation supervisor for the
company's Western Kentucky mines.
Some of Powell's and Barnhisel's
discoveries SOund deceptively simple.
In an article published in a 1977 issue
of the Mining Congress Iournal, they
noted that the maintaining of
vegetation of mined land depends on
“climate, spoil testing, plant species
selection, final grading, adequate
fertility and lime amendments,
seedbed preparation, mechanics of
seeding and management of newly-

4

before he began his work.

Barnhisel came to the University of
Kentucky as an assistant professor of
agronomy in 1964. He has published
more than 30 articles, but attributes
much of his achievement to the
farming practices he observed during
his rural upbringing in Miami
County, Indiana. For example, the
Commonwealth of Kentucky—
responding to Barnhisel's

 

experiments——now encourages
Western Kentucky miners to roughen
the surface of reclaimed land after
grading so it will hold more moisture
for crop growth. Though there are
differences between soils and spoils
(water soaks into mining spoil more
slowly), any farmer knows that
roughened land will hold more water.
”We just showed that plants grow
better with water," Barnhisel said.
“These are just farmer common sense
things applied to mining.”

Too much can be made, however,
of Barnhisel’s common sense
approach. He is, after all, a scientist,
and the persuasiveness of his
approach depends in part on his
effectiveness as a researcher. A
reading of his scientific papers
indicates that sophistication of the
scientific verification which has
impressed not only the officials of the
Commonwealth but also previously
skeptical executives of Peabody and
Southwind Mining Cos. The analysis
of spoils requires detailed laboratory
procedures, but it is this sort of
analysis which promises that in the
future Kentucky stripmining will
produce fewer ”moonscapes” and
desert-like remains, and more fields
of clover, corn and soybeans.

Faced with more stringent
government regulation, miners
obviously must do what they can to
predict the effects of stripping on
certain kinds of soil, and to
understand what measures will be
needed to restore it to productivity.
Barnhisel and his associates are
responding to this need. A recent
project, supported by the U.S. Office
of Surface Mining, is intended to
”develop predictors of the erodibility
of mine spoil and reconstructed
topsoil and to make this information
available to design engineers.”

This research, continuing at sites in
Ohio County, in Western Kentucky,
has led to refinement in the measure
of runoff and in the collection of data
so ”voluminous” that it is best
analyzed through the use of computer
programs written for this research.

The outcome of all this
investigation is not yet entirely clear,
but it already has dispelled some of
the pessimism Barnhisel noticed when
he began the work 11 years ago, and
it has led to substantial cooperation
between the University of Kentucky
and coal companies operating in the
state.

 3r

By Betty Tevis 2

 

The enzyme TdT was discovered
by former University of Kentucky
biochemist Dr. Frederic Bollum. Mary
Sue Coleman, then a postdoctoral
fellow working with Bollum, is now
in the forefront of TdT research.
Robert Lester, chairman of the
Department of Biochemistry in which
Coleman is an associate professor,
says, ”You cannot tell the story of
TdT without Dr. Coleman's work.”

Over the past eight years, with
continuous funding from the National
Cancer Institute, Dr. Coleman and
colleagues have begun unlocking
some of the secrets Of TdT.

Coleman's research attempts to
understand particular enzymes which
are believed significant to the human
immune system. She seeks ways to
isolate, clone, mark, and monitor
those enzymes which are found in
significantly high or low levels in
patients with certain leukemias and
lymphomas.

TdT—terminal deoxynucleotidyl
transferase—is often found in
increased levels in the bone marrow
of these patients. Using new
techniques in the field of molecular
biology Coleman is attempting to
answer certain questions about
terminal transferase. She is concerned
with how the synthesis of TdT is
regulated at the genetic level, and
with the cellular role of TdT and the
role of TdT in the body's immune
system.

 

Coleman, along with University
colleagues Drs. Robert Dickson and
Robert Rhoads, is currently
attempting to clone the genes for TdT
and ADA. Her laboratory is also
making monoclonal antibodies to
TdT and ADA and conducting
clinical and chemical studies of both
enzymes.

Coleman’s work is respected by her
colleagues. Dr. Michael Grever, a
hematologist at The Ohio State
University Medical Center, says, “Dr.
Coleman has been a major help to us
in relating changes in red blood cells
to the toxicity of new cancer drugs.
She is," he adds, “a first-rate scientist
who is willing to put time and effort
into finding what will help medicine
and man, what will make therapy
safe and effective."

Coleman and Dr. Yosh Maruyama,
chief of radiation medicine at the
University of Kentucky, are using
TdT as a marker in the study of
changes in the hemopoietic (blood—
forming) system caused by radiation.
Dr. Lester calls this kind of
collaboration between basic and
clinical scientists ”taking biochemistry
to the bedside.”

Despite her accomplishments,
Coleman maintains that hers has been
the “normal career progression." She
finds the university setting an exciting
one in large part because it offers
close associations with co—researchers,
fellows, and students. ”We gain from

Coleman’s interest is to understand those
enzymes crucial to the human immune
system—isolate them, clone them,
mark them, monitor them.

Another enzyme of interest to
Coleman is ADA—adenosine
deaminase. ADA is absent in the
bodies of children suffering from
Severe Combined Immunodeficiency
Disease. Coleman and Dr. John
Hutton discovered that deficiency of
ADA in these children causes the
buildup of a substance which destroys
the immune system. Their findings
are currently accepted as an
explanation of the pathology of this
disease. As a result, drugs which
inhibit ADA have been found to be
usefully clinically when reducing the
immune function in humans is
desirable.

having students and fellows around.
They ask questions and challenge old
ways of doing things.” It was in a
college laboratory that Coleman
herself consolidated her interest in a
career in science. “In a research lab,”
she says, ”you learn an aspect of
science you could never learn from
books and lectures.”

”I like the life I live,” Coleman
says. “I cannot imagine doing
anything else."

 

  

The Flying Taxicabs for
Plant Viruses

By Michael Kirkhorn

The aphid, wriggling in its cage
under the microscope, aphidic
proboscis, through which it eats,
tucked into its chest—good thing it
isn’t bigger: it would not make an
attractive pet. Why not just close
your eyes and ignore it?

Ask Professor Thomas P. Pirone of
the University of Kentucky's

Department of Plant Pathology. The »_

aphid is at the center of his attention
just now. He should have an answer.

It happens that the aphid is one
indispensable ingredient for an
intricate transaction which leads to
the infection of plants, therefore to
the loss of agricultural products to
humankind. Pirone is investigating
the process, and it is a complicated
one.

Think of aphids as the only taxi
company willing to pick up this kind
of fare—in this case, potyviruses,
described in the literature as ”flexuous
rods with modal lengths from about
680 to 900 nm” and by Pirone as “a
class of viruses which contain more
viruses of economic importance than
any other.”

The Aphid Cab Company is very
fast. Once it picks up a potyvirus it
delivers the thing to its destination, a
healthy plant, in seconds or minutes.
Virus and aphid hardly have time to
chat, and that doesn't help the plant,
nor those who are trying to prevent
the spread of the virus.

Worse yet, the plant cooperates.
Once infected it produces a protein
”helper component” which allows
other aphids to spread still more virus
to other plants. One of Pirone's
principal goals is to further explore
the mystery of the helper.

The practical agricultural problem
is sizeable. Kentucky's major cash
crops: tobacco, soybeans and corn,
its major forage legume, red clover,
as well as numerous types of
vegetables and ornamentals have
potyviruses which infect and cause
serious losses in yield and quality.

6

I.- ‘I-III-I-III-I-I-I-I
III-IIIIIIII

The more than 60 viruses which
belong to the potyvirus group occur
worldwide and attack more than 110
different plant species.

Scientists have bred plants which
resist infection, but new virus strains
constantly arise which overcome the
resistance. Methods of control, such
as oil sprays or aphid-repellent
mulches, are useful only on high-
value crops such as flowers and
certain vegetables and even then there
are limitations.

The quickness with which virus

 

occurs makes the problem
particularly difficult. Pirone said that
an aphid may land on an infected
weed, take up the virus, then
inoculate two or three healthy plants.
Once infected, the crop plant serves
as a source of virus for further
contamination. In this way an entire
field of tobacco may be infected. “In
Kentucky, year in and year out, two
viruses, tobacco—etch and tobacco-
vein mottling, cause more losses than
any other disease, he said.

Insecticide spraying would seem to

Unfortunately, the plant seems to
cooperate with the aphid,

inviting infection.

illustration by Iim Fnose

     

illustration by Iim Fimse

0ne aphid—spread virus infects plants belonging to more than 40
different botanical families.

be an obvious solution, but, Pirone
observed, infection ”can happen in
seconds—too fast for the aphids to be
killed by poison."

A deeper understanding of the
interaction between plant, virus,
aphid and the protein helper
component (HC) should improve the
effectiveness of currently used
methods of protection, and perhaps
lead to the development of new
methods of control.

A conversation with Pirone
suggests the presence of some genuine
mysteries, of intriguing puzzles which
become more complex and more
intriguing with investigation. The
aphid seems, for example, to be
nothing more than a “casual” carrier
of the virus, but if the relationship is
casual, “why do only aphids transmit
these viruses?” From an evolutionary
standpoint, the question is even more
interesting: How does it happen that
particular viruses are transmitted only
by particular insects, and what about
the evolution of this protein, ”whose
only purpose seems to be to help the
aphid spread the virus?”

”You seldom get a total answer to
anything in biology," Pirone said and
scientists sometimes find that they are
not even asking the right questions,
but he seems confident that by
focusing research on the helper
component, some important answers
may be found.

Pirone's research, supported by
grants from the US. Department of
Agriculture and from the RJ.
Reynolds Tobacco C0,, is proceeding
in the laboratory and in the field,
where, on two four and one-half acre
plots, the spread of aphid-borne
viruses in tobacco is being studied.

By collecting aphids from plants,
trapping aphids live and determining
which species are carrying virus, and
correlating the incidence of particular
aphid species with the incidence of
infected plants, Pirone hopes to
obtain a better understanding of
precisely how virus spread occurs.

In the laboratory, the helper
component remains a mystery, but a
mystery which gradually is being
uncovered. David Thornbury, a
postdoctoral research specialist in

Pirone’s lab, has been able to purify
the HC, and they have learned that
helper components produced by
different potyviruses differ
significantly.

In a joint effort with other
scientists in the Plant Pathology and
Biochemistry departments at UK,
evidence has been obtained that the
message for HC production is in the
RNA genome of the virus. Any plant
the virus can infect will apparently be
directed to produce this protein.
”This is a very exciting finding,"
Pirone said, even though the finding
makes it appear that “it is no longer
viable to look at breeding for
resistance to helper component
production as a potential means for
control of virus spread.

Pirone’s current research is
intended to complete the
characterization of the helper
component and to determine
conclusively whether it is a viral gene
product. To do this he and
Thornbury have adopted an
immunological approach, using
antibodies to highly purified HC to
neutralize specific polypeptides or to
identify specific gene products. Once
this is completed, the focus will be on
determining just how the HC works.

The minuteness of

the research is
troubling. . . the
amounts of virus
and HC involved are
so small; there is
almost nothing there.

The minuteness of this aspect of the
research is troubling for Pirone—“the
amount of virus and HC involved in
the transmission process is so small;
there is almost nothing there"—and
nearly defies the ordinary layperson’s
understanding. The outcome will
depend on the converging of several
indirect findings.

Pirone and his associates intend,
for example, to test the hypothesis
that HC binds the virus to the aphid's
food canal by allowing the aphids to
acquire radio-labelled virus with and
without HC. Then electron
microscope autoradiography of the
sectioned food canal would be
employed to determine whether
binding of HC treated (transmissible)
or untreated (nontransmissible) virus
has occurred. This is difficult enough,
but Pirone says that it will be even
more difficult to obtain conclusive
evidence about the hypothesis that
the aphid protects the virus, if the
binding hypothesis does not work
out.

It seems to be too soon to be
optimistic or pessimistic about these
experiments. But knowledge is
increasing, and eventually the
outcome may bring about some
rerouting of the old, reliable aphid
transportation business.

 

 

  

A Virus Called Herpes

 

By Tawny R. Acker

The three most common untruths
of the 19805 may well be: The check
is in the mail, the Mercedes is paid
for and I don’t have herpes

And indeed in the latter case, it is
probably an untruth because
approximately 42 million people have
either herpes simplex I or II. If a vote
were taken, herpes would probably
be elected the social disease of the
decade. It would win by a wide
margin if media coverage is any
indication, since it has certainly
graced enough magazine covers.

A brief synopsis of the herpes
story, as it has appeared in the
media, is as follows: Herpes is a virus
that infects a host at some part of the
body and stays with that host
forever; although, it may be dormant
for extended periods of time. There
are two strains of herpes receiving the
most attention: herpes simplex I and
II. Herpes simplex I exhibits itself in
what used to be called ”cold sores" or
”fever blisters” which appear on the
inside or outside of the mouth.
Herpes simplex II also takes the form
of fluid-filled blisters, but they appear
primarily on the genitals (although
they can appear anywhere on the
lower body.) Both strains of herpes
are usually transmitted by close
contact with an infected individual
and, herpes simplex II is most often
transmitted by intimate sexual
contact, hence the psychological and
sociological implications.

One prevention a sexually active
person can take is to use condoms as
a sanitary measure. However, this
precaution is not 100 percent effective
because the eruptions may appear
anywhere on the lower body and in
women, internally.

This is not to suggest that sexual

contact is the only way herpes
simplex II may be transmitted,
although it is the most frequent. The
virus may be transmitted from one
person to another by the infected
person touching some object and
another person, especially one with
an open wound, immediately
touching the same object. There is
also minor evidence that the virus can

Ilie herpes virus
takes little from
its host cell except
a place to attach

itself for life.

 
 
 
 
 
   
  
 
 
  
 
 

live on clothing, towels and the ever-
guilty toilet seat.

Both strains of herpes may be
treated with a drug called Acylovir,
which appears to hasten the drying of
the blisters and provide relief from
the itching and burning. However,
the drug is only a treatment not a
cure and does nothing to prevent
further episodes. It has been
suggested by some researchers that
large amounts of caffeine and
emotional stress may be responsible
for triggering repeated episodes.

The national media attention
herpes attracts usually focuses on
psychological and sociological
implications of human herpes strains
rather than on scientific research
being done toward a treatment or
cure. And most of the coverage has
touched only briefly on the research
being done on the more than 50
different strains that attack a diverse
range of animals from horses to tree
shrews and catfish.

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c \ NJLL. r~_;; lU

illustration by ]im Foose

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2

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A young woman with herpes who
is associated with the Lexington
herpes group, HELP, consented to
write a personal account of her
experience with contracting the
disease. The names used in the story
are fictitious.

I have herpes.

If you could see me, you would see
a young, attractive, well-groomed,
middle class woman who appears to
come from a good family. I have a
master's degree and a salaried job
with fringe benefits.

I consider myself a happy person.
So why is it such a big deal that
every once in a while I get some tiny

blisters? They only last a few days,
and they go away. Often I don't even
have a breakout for two or three
months. And usually the blisters are
only marginally painful; only when I
had my first attack did I have it bad.

That was three years ago, in the
summer. I was 27 years old and very
much in love—with Martin.

”It's called a herpes blister,” Martin
had told me when I noticed he had a
small lesion. ”I get them every once
in a while.”

“Isn’t that something bad?" I asked.

“I went to the doctor for it and he
said it was nothing to worry about.
It's the same as a fever blister.”

This was before Time magagazine’s
“Scarlet Letter of the 80’s” cover,
before herpes jokes (“What's the
difference between herpes and love?”
"Herpes is forever.”), before anyone
knew I had it.

CONTINUED PAGE 12

 

Who Contracts
"Sexual Leprosy"?

By Susan H. Donohew

On the day of her wedding, a
young Lexington woman found out
that her husband-to-be had herpes
and had infected her. The wedding
was called off.

Her story is one of many related
during meetings of a local herpes self-
help group. Contracting herpes,
however, is just the beginning. What
happens? How do they cope? How
really bad is it for them? How does it
affect them? These and other
questions were recently put to
members of the Lexington herpes
group and a Cincinnati group, both
called HELP. Not all HELP members
chose to participate in the
questionnaire. However, the 27 who
did, 13 women and 14 men, provided
some insight into a disease that has
been termed ”sexual leprosy.”

The survey was put together by
Robert Moore of UK’s Department of
Behavioral Sciences and included a
section on coping developed by
colleague John Wilson and the UK
College of Agriculture's Health
Hazard Appraisal, a much used
questionnaire to determine behavioral
factors that will affect an individual's
health.

A recent Life magazine article cited
a survey that 22 percent of all
unmarried Americans between 18 and
37 have altered their sexual habits to
avoid infection. However, according
to the experiences of many of the
HELP group, this strategy may not
prevent their infection. For example,
three members contracted it from
their spouses, four from their
fiancees, 14 from friends (the depth of
the friendship was not determined by
the question), and six from others. So
over one-fourth were either engaged
to be married or married to the
individual who infected them and
more than two-thirds had, at a
minimum, been friends.

In other words there was a high
level of certainty as to who infected
them—complete certainty was
expressed by 59.3% and