Antitoxins 1890 – Life-Saving Antisera

Historian Derek Linton says: 

"In 1901, Emil von Behring's serum therapy against diphtheria, which killed thousands of babies each year, earned him the first Nobel Prize in medicine. Diphtheria serum was the first widely effective treatment of the bacteriological era, and its development established new procedures for testing drugs.”

Von Behring's serum therapy involved turning sheep and horses into antitoxin producers.

Some bacteria harm the body by producing damaging toxins. For example:

• Corynebacterium diphtheriae causes diphtheria by producing a protein that spreads through the body in the blood and affects the heart, kidneys and nerves. 
• Clostridium tetani produces a nerve toxin called tetanospasmin, causing contractions in the jaw muscles and other parts of the body. Tetanus usually results from an infected wound and is responsible for the vast majority of deaths from battlefield injuries.

In the 1890s, German scientists von Behring and Erich Wernicke developed the first effective antiserum against diphtheria toxin. Around the same time, von Behring and Japanese bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato also developed an antiserum against tetanus toxin. The researchers inoculated animals with sterilised cultures containing the toxins and discovered that the animals' serum (freed of blood cells and clotting factors) could neutralise toxins when injected into diseased animals. These antibodies were produced by one animal and transferred through serum to another (known as passive immunity), providing short-term immunity. 

German scientist Paul Ehrlich improved von Behring's techniques by enabling horses and sheep to be injected with a safe amount of toxin. He then used their blood to produce life-saving antisera containing appropriate amounts of antitoxin. 

By binding to harmful substances through the antibodies they contain and enabling the recipient to mount a stronger immune response, antisera represent a very important step in medical history.

Description of the article image: An illustration in the 17 November 1894 issue of Scientific American showed doctors drawing blood from a horse to produce antitoxin for diphtheria.

Historical figures mentioned in the article: Shibasaburo Kitasato (1853–1931), Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915), Emil Adolf von Behring (1854–1917), Erich Arthur Emanuel Wernicke (1859–1928)

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