Biological Warfare and Snake Venom for Poliomyelitis and ALS: The Little Known Entwined History of Failed Ethics and a Reasonable Therapeutic Hypothesis

This paper describes a complicated history taken place during World War II (WWII) when military intentions for acquiring biological weapon superiority knowledge was obtained in some cases through atrocious investigations in human beings disregarding ethical and moral principles. After the war, Murray Sanders (1910-1988), a young military officer and American scientist became incidentally entwined with the U.S. military concern over the Japanese bacteriological knowledge, unbeknown by the Allies that was being acquired through human experiments. In a second stage of his career (between 1949 and 1983), Sanders investigated the potential therapeutic characteristics of snake venom, obtained several U.S. patents on the formulation and an Investigational New Drug (IND) license from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While he was well-intentioned and cared for his patients, Sanders utilized protocols non-sanctioned by Independent Ethics Committees and openly administered detoxified snake venom neurotoxin or Modified Neurotoxin (MNT) to patients with poliomyelitis and later used it in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). While Sanders reported “partial” efficacy of MNT in ALS this was not confirmed with placebo-controlled, IRB-approved clinical trials. Two well-designed placebo-controlled clinical trials performed by independent institutions sanctioned by the FDA and approved by their respective Institutional Review Boards did not yield positive results. Findings were reported in the neurological literature. Later in life Sanders was requested to testify in a Congressional Hearing on the WWII Japanese bacteriological warfare experiments and the U.S. strategy to condone culpability of war crimes in exchange for military information. This article reflects on a scientific effort spanning through several epochs and personae interacting with diverse philosophies and different objectives performing research in human beings. *Corresponding author: Victor M Rivera, MD, FAAN, Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA ReView ARticle