This week’s posts feature great moments in the history of immunology. Although the death of Vizzini (and corresponding survival of the hero Westley due to his years of building up immunity to iocaine powder, among the deadlier and fictitious poisons known to man) in _The Princess Bride_ might be famous in terms of cultural history, the real credit for the development of antibody serum therapy goes to the two individuals featured on the following images: Shibasaburo Kitasato and Emil von Behring, respectively.
Today we know that antibodies do many amazing things, like binding to harmful antigens like viruses or the toxins secreted by certain bacteria to prevent entry into the host’s cells. In the late 19th century, Kitasato and von Behring figured out how to take advantage of the human immune system’s ability to make antibodies. They cultured bacteria colonies of tetanus from mildly infected animals’ blood (Behring also did the same with the diphtheria bacteria) and injected the serum (that’s the liquid part of the blood, the part that might contain antibodies) into other animals. Then, they gave the animals with the antibodies a very high dose of the harmful bacteria.
The animals with the serum survived, and this development led to the treatment of these and many other illnesses with antibody serum. Today, maladies ranging from transplant rejection to Ebola or snake’s venom can be treated with therapeutic serum and give a sufferer passive immunity — — and hopes of survival. The drug company Regeneron was recently in headlines for developing the monoclonal antibody for use of patients infected with SARS-COV2.
