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The History of Immunology

Francis Ian L. Salaver, RMT

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Stages of Immunology

Descriptive early period Early attempts at vaccination:

Smallpox Early experiments: Bacteria cause

disease Humoral v. cellular immunity

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Descriptive Early Period

Plagues & pandemics, esp. bubonic plague in Egypt

Disease was regarded as a punishment from God or gods. God struck down those with evil in their hearts, it was a penalty and the ultimate price was death.

Thucydides (5thC. B.C.): people who recovered - immune

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Early Attempts at Immunization

Mithradates VI (Anatolian King) took increasing daily doses of poisons.

Mithridatism is the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering non-lethal amounts.

Early Attempts at Immunization Indian epics talk about this practice too. There

was a practice of selecting beautiful girls and administering poison in small amounts until they grew up, thus making them insensitive to poison. These maidens were called vishakanyas (visha = poison, kanya = maiden). It was believed that making love with vishakanyas can result in death of their partners, hence they were employed to kill enemies.

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Early Attempts at Immunization

Immunization against Smallpox:- caused by the variola virus. enters the body through the lungs and is carried in

the blood to the internal organs and skin where it multiplies.

can kill 10 to 30% of the total population, the most feared and greatest killer in human history.

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Early Attempts at Immunization

Immunization against Smallpox:- Chinese: dried matter from pustules

inserted in nostrils. Dried smallpox scabs were blown into the

nose of an individual who then contracted a mild form of the disease. (Asians and Africans)

Europeans and their American cousins tended to inoculate through a puncture in the skin.

Variolation Blowing dried scab material up the

noses of the individuals with a silver tube ("Gan Miao": dry vaccine) or using water to make a paste from scabs to insert into the nostrils ("Shi Miao": wet vaccine).

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A Smallpox Victim

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Immunisation against Smallpox (1) Variolation

Early 18th C.: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (wife of British Ambassador, Constantinople) inoculated own children.

“The Royal Experiment”Several prisoners and abandoned children were

inoculated by having smallpox inserted under the skin. Several months later, the children and prisoners were deliberately exposed to smallpox. When none contracted the disease, the procedure was deemed safe and members of the royal family were inoculated

Then 2 daughters of Prince & Princess of Wales inoculated, hence became popular.

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Immunisation against Smallpox (2) Vaccination

End of 18th C.: Edward Jenner

Inoculated 7 subjects with cowpox. 2 challenged with smallpox. All O.K.  

Cowpox = Vaccinia virus, hence vaccination general term.

Edward Jenner As a teenager, while learning to be a

physician, he heard a young farm girl tell a doctor that she could not contract smallpox because she had once had cowpox (a very mild disease). This started him thinking about a vaccine.

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14Edward Jenner inoculating James Phipps with cowpox

Note!!!  “Vaccination,” the word Jenner

invented for his treatment (from the Latin, vacca, a cow), was adopted by Louis Pasteur for immunization against any disease

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Immunisation against Smallpox (3) WHO Programme

1978: WHO Programme completed.

Smallpox completely eradicated worldwide.

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19th C.: Bacteria cause disease

Robert Koch & Louis Pasteur established bacteria as cause of diseases.

Pasteur: Injected animals with live attenuated micoorganisms immunity v. chicken cholera, anthrax, rabies.

Louis Pasteur Pasteur's later work on diseases

included work on chicken cholera. During this work, a culture of the responsible bacteria had spoiled and failed to induce the disease in some chickens he was infecting with the disease.

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Louis Pasteur Upon reusing these healthy

chickens, Pasteur discovered he could not infect them, even with fresh bacteria;

Why?

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Louis Pasteur On July 4, 1886, 9-year-old Joseph Meister

was bitten repeatedly by a rabid dog. Pasteur treated him with his attenuated rabies vaccine two days later. Meister survived.

Joseph Meister later become a gatekeeper for the Pasteur Institute. In 1940, when he was ordered by the German occupiers to open Pasteur's crypt, Joseph Meister refused and committed suicide!

 

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Wars of The Cells and Antibodies

Cellular Theory: Elie Metchnikoff Phagocytes in starfish larvae

surround a splinter; phagocytosis & digestion of bacteria by Ms & polymorphs Phagocytic Theory (innate immunity).

Humoral Theory: Koch, Ehrlich et al. (Berlin) Showed serum from immunised animals kills

bacteria.

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Humoral Immunity

Bordet discovered complement. Behring & Kitasato – immunity

to diphtheria & tetanus due to Abs. v. toxins.

Passive transfer of immune serum protection = 1st immunotherapy. 

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Wars of The Cells and Antibodies: Truce

Sir Almoth Wright & Douglas - Opsonisation of bacteria by Antibodies. Attempted fusion of Cellular and Humoral Theories – “Sir Almost Right”.

Opsonins

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Prepare 1/4

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