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1. The pharmacokinetics of mifentidine, a new long acting histamine H2- receptor antagonist, were studied using two protocols. 2. In one study, on 5 different days six normal male subjects were given 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 mg mifentidine or placebo orally 60 min before starting a 3 h continuous gastric aspiration during which time blood samples were taken for measurement of mifentidine concentration. 3. The area under the curves of mifentidine plasma levels (AUC) vs time for the four doses was linearly related to the dose for each individual subject (r = 0.972, P less than 0.001). After doses of 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mg, mifentidine reduced hydrogen ion output by respectively 36, 37, 60 and 75% and secretory volume by 1, 17, 40, and 47%. The effects at the two highest doses were statistically significant. AUC was correlated positively with the percentage reduction in hydrogen ion output (r = 0.802, P less than 0.001) and volume (r = 0.834, P less than 0.001) over a 3 h period. 4. In the second study, the pharmacokinetics were evaluated after once-daily treatment for 14 days in seven subjects given 10 mg and in seven others subjects given 20 mg. 5. After multiple dosing, renal clearance was similar for the two doses (11.6 +/- 2.11 l h-1 for the low dose and 17.0 +/- 2.0 l h-1 for the high dose). Plasma half-life (t1/2 lambda 2) was 16.0 +/- 3.0 h after the 10 mg dose and 11.9 +/- 1.2 h after 20 mg.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of whether oral Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection provides protection against subsequent genital infection by Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) was investigated. Mice were used as models. Following conditions in man, both the oral and genital infections applied were noninjurious. Mice infected orally with HSV-1 were weakly protected against virus 'take' following vaginal challenge with HSV-2. Genital 'takes' were found in 67% of the immunized mice, as compared with 83% of the controls (protection rate 20%, P = 0.002). The course of genital infection in the immunized mice, however, was relatively mild: Lethality decreased from 97% in the controls to 35% in the immunized mice (protection rate 63%, P less than 0.001). Furthermore, local and neurologic symptoms occurred less frequently. Attempts to isolate the virus from homogenized brain and spinal cord of immunized mice that died after genital challenge with HSV-2 failed in most cases. Also virus could not be recovered from the liver of infected mice, irrespective of the experimental group.