From the Gorgon's blood to Behring's Blutserumtherapie: A long path towards serum therapy.

Autor: Lahaie YM; Service médical TAAF-IPEV, Institut polaire français, Plouzané, France., Watier H; Université de Tours and INSERM, UMR 1100, Tours, France.; CHRU de Tours, service d'immunologie, Tours, France.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Immunological reviews [Immunol Rev] 2024 Nov; Vol. 328 (1), pp. 13-23. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 14.
DOI: 10.1111/imr.13391
Abstrakt: At the end of the 19th century medicine was turned upside down by the development of serum therapy, a great therapeutic revolution as was vaccination a few years earlier. Many serums were developed, the most famous being the German doctor Emil von Behring's diphtheria serum, which saved countless children's lives from this dreadful disease. The discovery of the serum therapy principle, allowed by the progressive understanding of humoral immunity, occurred both in Germany and France, almost at the same time. Interestingly, this principle arose from two different intellectual paths, reviving the age-old opposition between mechanism and vitalism: while Behring came to this discovery reasoning as a chemist, French researchers Charles Richet and Jules Héricourt behaved as physiologists, focusing on the role of the host in the host-pathogen interaction. However, we should maybe consider that serum therapy history begins much earlier. Great forerunners must not be forgotten, especially researchers who investigated the field of immunity as soon as in the very beginning of the microbiological revolution; but also many people throughout centuries who tried to cure diseases with blood: as a transfer of blood serum, serum therapy also lies in the tradition of blood transfusion.
(© 2024 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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