Immunology & serology

HISTORY OF
IMMUNOLOGY
Professor: Ruby Meim
introduction 1. active immunity
 3 periods of Immunology  Active Immunity – The form of adaptive immunity that is
o Experiential Immunology period induced by exposure to a foreign antigen and in which the
 17th-19th century immunized individual plays an active role in responding to
 Conclusions are based on experiences the antigen.
& observations o The body synthesizes its own antibodies
o Experimental Immunology period  R. Koch
 19th – 20th century o Isolated and cultured bacteria successfully
 Lab works are the basis for o Koch’s postulates – applicable for infectious
conclusions diseases ONLY
o Modern Immunology period  Pasteur
 20th – 21st century o Infectious diseases were caused by pathogens
 Molecular biology o Anti-cholera live-attenuated vaccine –
 Antigen – Antibody binding is ARTIFICIAL active immunity
elucidated  Term to be defined – definition

Experiential immunology period 2. passive immunity

 17th – 19th century  Passive Immunity – The form of immunity to an antigen
 In ancient times, many serious infection diseases, such as that is established in one individual by transfer of antibody
smallpox, plague and cholera etc. caused innumerable or lymphocytes from another individual who is immune to
people dead. that antigen.
 1670 – Variolation was practiced by Chinese medical o Antibody is transferred
practitioners  Roux and Yersin
o Variolation – process of inoculation / inhalation o Diphtheria was caused by exotoxin produced by
of smallpox lesions (pustules) to produce C. diphtheriae
immunity o Discovered diphtheriae antitoxin and
 Lady Mary Montague – was the first to introduce bactericidins
variolation in England from Turkey  Antitoxin -> Antibody
 Edward Jenner – discovered that cowpox vaccination  Exotoxin -> Antigen
protected against smallpox  Von Behring and Kitasato
o This was the first documented process of cross o Study on reaction of Ag and Ab in vitro
reactivity o Diphtheriae antitoxin was applied in
 Cross reactivity – different antigens o treatment of Diphtheria
have similar glucolipid antigenic sites
o Artificial passive Immunity
so they are able to react to the same
antibody
 Vaccine - A preparation of microbial antigen, often
combined with adjuvants, that is administered to
individuals to induce protective immunity against microbial
infections.
o Adjuvant – enhances the immune response;
increases antibody yield
o Therapeutic vaccine – used to cure (e.g. cancer
vaccine) In Ag-Ab binding, there is ALWAYS specificity
o Prophylactic vaccine – prevents future
infections 3. study on antigen
 Experimental  Landsteiner
 Toxoid o Study on antigenic determinant (epitope)
 Subunit  Epitope is a part of the antigen where
 Conjugated the antibody binds
 Killed or attenuated o ABO Blood Type
 Vaccination - A general term for immunization against
infectious diseases, originally derived from immunization 4. study on immunochemistry
against smallpox which uses the Vaccinia virus.
 Tiselius and Kabat
o “vacca” - cow
o Antibodies are gamma globulins
 Porter and Edelmen
Experimental immunology period o Molecular structure of antibody: 4 peptides
  2 heavy chain
 2 light chain

5. study on immune tolerance Of lymphocytes

 Immune tolerance – no immune response to a specific
antigen
 Owen
o natural immune tolerance
 Medawar
o Animal model of acquired immune tolerance
 Cattle of dizygotic twin
o 1st batch pregnancy: No immune response
o 2nd and 3rd batch pregnancy: material from 1st
batch is grafted, adverse reactions occur Clonal Expansion
 Chimera – single organism composed of genetically two
distinct cells
o Lydia Fairchild – has 2 distinct DNAs
 Clonal selection theory
o (1) There are various lymphocyte clones in our
body, each of them bears a unique type of Ag
receptor which can recognize Ag specifically
o (2) The clones of lymphocytes that can recognize
self antigens will be destroyed or learn tolerance
to self Antigens (forbidden clones) at the early
stage of their development
 Clone Deletion
o (3) The clones of lymphocytes that can be
interacted with corresponding antigen will be
selected and lead to activation, proliferation,
produce antibody and specific memory cells.
 Clone Selection
o (4) Forbidden clones can be revived and cause
autoimmunity.

7. mechanism of protective immunity

 Cell mediated immunity (CMI)
o Metchnikoff
o Phagocytic cells
6. hypothesis for antibody formation  Humoral immunity (HI)
 Templates postulate o Ehrlich
o Breinl and Haurowitz o Antibodies in serum
o Direct  Both HI and CMI were very important for protective
o Antigen as a template against which the antibody immunity
would fold o Wright & Douglas – combined the ideas of
 Variable folding postulate Ehrlich and Metchnikoff
o Pauling o Antibody in serum could promote the
 Natural selection postulate phagocytosis of phagocytic cells
o Jerne
o Serum has antibodies of every specificity
 Clonal selection theory
o Burnet
8. study on immune-pathology & immune
o Indirect disease
o Entry of antigenic determinants into antibody  Richet and Portier – Anaphylaxis (allergic reaction)
producing cells induce heritable change in the  Pirquet and Shick – Hypersensitivity (exaggerated
cell immune response)
o Clone - a group cells that stem from identical cell  Arthus – Arthus phenomenon
 Excess antibodies and antigens deposit
in organs and cause destruction
 Donath and Landsteiner - Autoantibody cause
autoimmune disease

modern immunology period

1. study on immune system
 Glick Fabricius and Xianguang Zhang
o B cell
 o Experiment: Chicken without bursa can not  Study on DNA vaccine
produce Ab  Study on treatment with immune cells
 Good and Miller
o T cell 8. new techniques of modern immunology
o Experiment: cell mediated immunity of new born
mice whose thymus were taken away are and application
defective  Separation of immune cells
 Protein analysis technique
2. study on monoclonal antibody  Phage display technique
 Monoclonal Antibody  Preparation of new animal model
o Single clone of antibodies
o Used on rapid test kits and antisera
 Kohler and Milstein
o Monoclonal antibody prepared through
Hybridoma Technology

3. study on immune genetics

 Genetic control of antibody diversity
 MHC, TCR, BCR
o MHC – Major Histocompatibility Complex
 Discovered by Jean Dauset
 Surface molecules on nucleated cells
 Important for transplantation
 HLA – Human Leukocyte Antigen
o TCR – T cell receptor
o BCR – B cell receptor

4. study on molecular mechanism of t/b

lymphocyte activation and signal
activation
 How T & B cells cooperate

5. study on effective mechanism of

immune cells
6. study on clinical immunology
 Organ transplantation
 Autoimmune disease
 Tumor immunology
 Infectious diseases

7. study on applied immunology

 Preparation of monoclonal antibody and genetic
engineering antibody
 Preparation of recombinant cytokines