APURA, Jake Angelo T.
BMLS-3J
Brief History of Immunology
Four Periods in the History of Immunology
Descriptive early period
Early attempts at vaccination
Early experiments
Humoral vs. Cellular immunity
DESCRIPTIVE EARLY PERIOD
Disease were regarded as
punishment from God
Earliest written mention of the
concept of immunity:
Thucydides (plague of Athens in
430 BC)
Early Attempts at Vaccination
Mithridates VIs father (Anatolian
king), was assassinated by poisoning,
said to be at his mothers orders
Mithridates was in competition
with his brother for the throne
and his mother began to favor his
brother
Supposedly, during his youth, he
began to suspect plots against
him at his own mothers orders
and was aware of her possible
connection with his fathers
death
He then began to notice, pains in
his stomach during his meals and
suspected his mother had ordered
small amounts of poison to be
added to his food to slowly kill
him off. With other assassination
attempts, he fled into the wild.
While there, and after his
accession, he cultivated an
immunity to poisons by regularly
sub-lethal doses
Mithridates VI took increasing
daily doses of poisons from the
poisonous plants he ate with the
thought that it might make him
stronger to survive any attempts
to poison him.
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 attempts at
immunization
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 Visha
Kanya (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
Immunization against smallpox:
Caused by the variola virus
Virus enters the body through
the lungs and is carried in the
blood to the internal organs
and skin where it multiplies.
Killed 10 to 30% of the
worlds total population, the
most feared and greatest
killer in human history
Chinese: dried matter from pustules
inserted in nostrils.
Dried smallpox scabs were blown
into the nose of an individual who
APURA, Jake Angelo T.
BMLS-3J

then contracted a mild form of the Edward Jenner

disease (Asians and Africans)
As a teenager, while learning to be a
Europeans and their American
physician, he heard a young farm girl
cousins: tended to inoculate through
tell a doctor that she could not
a puncture in the skin
contract smallpox because she had
VARIOLATION once had cowpox (a very mild
disease). This started him thinking
Blowing dried scab material up the
about a vaccine.
noses of the individuals with a silver
Edward Jenner inoculating James
tube ( Gan Miao: dry vaccine)
Phipps with cowpox
Or using water to make a paste from
scabs to insert into the nostrils (Shi CONCEPT OF CROSS-REACTIVITY
Miao: wet vaccine)
Spread of Popularity in Europe Variolation
Early 18th Century: Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu inoculated her
own children with smallpox virus.
The Royal Experiment
Several prisoners and
abandoned children were
inoculated by having
smallpox inserted under the
skin. Several months later,
the homeless children and 1978: WHO Programme completed
prisoners were deliberately 1965-1980
exposed to smallpox.
When none contracted the 3. Early Experiments
disease, the procedure was 19th Century: bacteria cause disease
deemed safe and member of Robert Kock & Louis Pasteur
the royal family were established bacteria as cause of
inoculated. Then 2 daughters diseases
of Prince & Princess of Pasteur: Injected animals with live
Wales inoculated, hence attenuated microorganisms
became popular. immunity versus chicken cholera,
Immunization against smallpox: Vaccination anthrax and rabies

Edward Jenner
Late 18th century
Cowpox= Vaccinia virus
Vacca is Latin for cow
Hence vaccination
APURA, Jake Angelo T.
BMLS-3J

Basis for the development of live

vaccines
Louis Pasteur on Anthrax and Rabies
Vaccine
Pasteur publicly claimed he had
made the anthrax vaccine. Skeptics
challenged him to recreate the
vaccine in a public experiment.
Pasteur used 60 sheeps: 10 control,
50 for testing

25 sheep 25 sheep
Vaccine No Vaccine
Anthrax virus Anthrax virus
Perfect health Died
Louis Pasteur
Pasteur produced the first vaccine
for rabies by growing the virus in
rabbits, and then weakening it by
drying the affected nerve tissue.
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.
Difference between Jenners and Pasteurs
concepts on immunity

Louis Pasteur
Attenuation
Change in the virulence of a
pathogenic microorganism
(weakened but viable strain)
Induced by passage through another
host species
Decreased virulence for the native
host
APURA, Jake Angelo T.
BMLS-3J

Edward Jenner cells existed in the blood of

vertebrate animals and this led
Metchnikoff to propose that the cells
are the ones responsible for this
process (phagocytosis)
A. Cellular Theory: Robert Koch
Koch phenomenon
TB healthy guinea pigs 10-14days
ulceration
TB tuberculosis guinea pigs ulceration
and necrosis
Louis Pasteur

Cells Plasma
TB healthy guinea pigs

Ulceration/necrosis 10-14 days ulceration

Kochs Phenomenon
4. War of the Cells and Antibodies
A. Cellular Theory:
Elie Metchnikoff
Robert Koch
B. Humoral Theory:
Paul Ehrlich
Behring & Kitasato
A. Cellular Theory: Ellie Metchnikoff
Metchnikoff discovered that the
transparent starfish larva B. Humoral Theory:
contained cells that could Paul Ehrlich
efficiently surround and ingest Showed serum from immunized
foreign material, including animals kills bacteria
microorganisms. Subsequent Behring & Kitasato
experiments indicated that similar
APURA, Jake Angelo T.
BMLS-3J

Immunity to diphtheria & tetanus Kohler Monoclonal

due to antibodies to the toxins antibodies
Tonegawa Antibody diversity
Passive transfer of immune system Snell, Major
protection = 1st immunotherapy Benacerraf, Histocompatibility
War of the Cells and Antibodies: Truce Dausset Complex; rejection

Sir Almoth Wright & Douglas-

Opsonization of bacteria by
antibodies. Attempted fusion of
Cellular and Humoral Theories- Sir
Almost Right

Scientist Discovery
Bordet Complement
system
Salk, Sabin Polio vaccine
Reed Yellow fever
vaccine
Frazer Human
papillomavirus
vaccine
Burnet Clonal selection
theory