The Parallel Evolution of Immunology and Pharmacology

Abstract

Immunology is the systematic evaluation of the means through which human beings protect themselves and respond to the attack of internal and external agents, and Edward Jenner (1749-1823) and Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) are considered pioneers of this field. Jenner observed the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox and inoculated the cowpox in human beings to protect them from the often lethal smallpox. Pasteur developed in his laboratory a vaccine against rabies and elaborated methods for attenuating the virulence of pathogenic microorganisms while maintaining their immunogenicity. Pharmacology is the area of medical science dealing with drugs and their uses, and it was during the nineteenth century that it assumed its status of scientific specialty, mainly in German-speaking Europe, through the establishment of pharmacological institutes and dedicated laboratories. The discovery and the synthesis of drugs and the systematic evaluation of their activity have constituted through time a scientific field in which immunology and pharmacology have met and given origin to notable progress in the history of science. The development of chemotherapy, as well as of organ and tissue transplantation, in the twentieth century has been decisively promoted by both immunology and pharmacology. In the last three decades the relationship between these two scientific branches has become increasingly closer in basic research, clinical science, medical education and also editorial scientific activity, as documented by the Journal hosting this paper.