Histamine, Capsaicin and Neurogenic Inflammation. A Historical Note on the Contribution of Miklós (Nicholas) Jancsó (1903–1963) to Sensory Pharmacology

Abstract

Miklos (Nicholas) “Jancso was undoubtedly the greatest genius of post World War II Hungarian biomedical sciences,” noted Professor Szentagothai in his introductory remarks to a symposium on “Capsaicin and the sensory system” held in Budapest in 1985.1 It is not possible to give here even a superficial account of N. Jancso’s scientific achievements. Instead, the intention of the present author is to draw attention to some interesting aspects of his investigations and to show that, despite the apparent diversity of the fields of medical research in which he was involved, his work is characterized by a remarkable unbroken thematic continuity. This is also emphasized in the excellent book by Professor B. Issekutz senior,2 in which he wrote about the life and work of Jancso and his father, N. Jancso senior, who was a renowned malaria researcher and Director of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Kolozsvar (now Cluj, Rumania) and later on at Szeged University. Professor Issekutz was himself an outstanding pharmacologist, who headed the Pharmacology Department at Szeged and later at Budapest University. He greatly appreciated the brilliance of his young colleague and supported him in his career in many ways. He established a chemotherapy division for Jancso in the Pharmacology Department at Szeged University after he had completed a successful Fellowship at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin in 1931. In the pre-war period of his scientific career, Jancso made a significant contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in the action of chemotherapeutic agents, as will be mentioned briefly in this article.