Antitoxic Properties Research Articles

Enhancing effect of coenzyme Q 10 on immunorestoration with BCG in tumor-bearing mice

Protein A (PA) ofStaphylococcus aureusis known for its immunostimulatory, anti-cancer, and anti-toxic properties. The present study revealed that PA stimulates specific immunocytes to act as a potential immunorestorer. It has also been shown that the percentage of various cell types bearing different clusters of differentiation markers, e.g., CD4+, CD8+, CD19+, increases considerably after inoculation with PA. It has also been observed that CD34+progenitor cells of bone marrow also increased significantly (P< 0.05) upon PA treatment. PA significantly elevated Th-1 cytokines, e.g., IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-1α. The increased percentages of CD4+, CD8+, CD19+, CD34+cells and elevated cytokine levels in PA treated animals may contribute to the reported anti-tumor, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, and anti-toxic properties of PA. Since in various diseased conditions and during toxic drug therapy lymphocytes bearing such differentiation markers get suppressed, this type of approach could help in immunorestoration of the host. These findings might help in designing therapeutic approaches toward various diseases which cause immunosuppression.

Formation of active antitoxic immunity in germ-free rats after burns

The mechanism of appearance of the antitoxic properties of convalescent serum after burns was investigated in rats. A flame burn covering 20–25% of the body surface with an exposure of 20 sec was inflicted on 10 germ-free and 12 ordinary contaminated rats. Convalescent serum was obtained 2 months after burning and was tested by the blood culture method for the presence of a neutralization effect against toxic serum taken 24 h after burning. The sera of five unburned rats were used as the control. The sera of the germ-free and ordinary contaminated rats had an equally strong antitoxic action. The sera of the control unburned rats gave no antitoxic effect. the results suggest that the formation of antitoxic immunity after burning takes place not only on account of the bacterial flora, but also on account of antigens of tissue origin.

Antitoxic and pyrogenic properties of rabbit polymorphs

Leukocytes f rom peri toneal exudate of rabbits obtained after intraperi toneal injection of physiclogical NaCI solution secre te substances neutralizing staphylococcal toxin and possess ing a pyrogenie action. The antitoxic activity of the leukocytes rose sharply after contact with pyrogenaI or with vaccine obtained from Bacillus mesenter icus . Extrac ts of the leukocytes, and fract ions of the granules, mitochondria, and hyaloplasm do not possess antitoxid or pyrogenic activity.

Observations on the Anti-Toxic Property of AU-610 Drug on Nicotinism and Alcoholism

Observations on the Anti-Toxic Property of AU-610 Drug on Nicotinism and Alcoholism

Studies on thallium poisoning. I.—the detoxifying action of some compounds containing sulphur and labile methyl groups

AbstractThe detoxifying action of cystine, homocystine, methionine, betaine, choline, sodium formate and of a homocystine–betaine combination was tested using acutely and chronically poisoned rats. Choline and formate were ineffective, cystine, homocystine and betaine showed significant antitoxic properties and methionine and the homocystine–betaine mixture were very efficient detoxicants. It is concluded that thallium interferes with both sulphur and methyl metabolism.

Vitamin C and Diphtheria Toxin

SummaryVitamin C under certain conditions increased the resistance of guinea pigs to injection of 1 M.L.D. of a standardized diphtheria toxin. Injections of mixtures of toxin and vitamin C if the solutions had been in contact for 1 hour at room temperature before injection were less toxic. The guinea pigs that had survived these injections 5 to 7 weeks showed but slight if any immunity when tested by the injection of 2 M.L.D.'s of the toxin. Vitamin C caused no destruction of the antitoxic properties of antitoxin or of the slightly toxic toxin antitoxin mixture. Only clinical work can determine whether the increased resistance to diphtheria toxin shown by guinea pigs treated with vitamin C can be applied to human beings. While we were engaged in these experiments Dr. C. G. King told us that he and Dr. Bessey2 were working in the same field and had also found a relationship between vitamin C and diphtheria toxin.We wish to thank Mr. Andrew Mackey for his aid in carrying out the experiments.

Societies and Academies

PARIS. Academy of Sciences, Sept. 22.—The president announced the death of Philippe Glangeaud, of the Section of Mineralogy.—H. Vincent: The comparative cryptotoxic power of the sodium salts of some of the saturated fatty acids. It has been shown in earlier publications that minute doses of sodium oleate, palmitate, or margarate can neutralise very active toxins (tetanus, diphtheria, dysentery), and that this is due to a physical action of the soaps. The antitoxic power of these soaps extends also to venoms, certain alkaloids, and metallic salts. The present communication gives an account of the antitoxic properties of the lower terms of the fatty acid series. The effects are very irregular and do not depend on the number of carbon atoms in the molecule, the solubility, or the melting point of the acid. There is no connexion between the cryptotoxic power and the surface tension of the solution.—Luc Picart: The singular cases in the calculation of orbits.—R. Chodat: New researches on the gonidia of lichens.—C. Raveau: The utilisation of streams at the mouth.—Jacques Chokhate: Continued algebraical fractions.—Paul Alexandroff: The geometrical analysis of the dimension of closed ensembles.—Georges Giraud: The integro-differential equations in conjunction with integro-differential conditions at the boundary.—Radu Badesco: A functional equation.—Pierre Dupin: The vibration of cylindrical tubes in water under the influence of alternating vortices.—D. Rosenthal and M. Mathieu: Mild steel welding in the electric arc. The strength of the weld is much increased if during the welding the metal is protected from oxidation. Examination by X-rays proves the existence of stresses in the case of the non-protected welds.—Constantin Salceanu: The magnetic double refraction of phenol, naphthalene, and of phenanthrene in the fused condition. The passage from the benzene ring to naphthalene and phenanthrene results in a large increase in the magnetic double refraction.—A. P. Rollet: A silver borate. The compound described was proved to have the composition Ag2B4O7 + 2H2O.—Andre Meyer and Mile. Suzanne Mathey: The volumetric estimation of acetone. The acetone is precipitated as 3HgSO4.5HgO.2C3H6O by Deniges reagent (acid mercury sulphate), the mercury in excess being titrated by Volhard's method.—L. Bert: A new method of synthesis of phenylpropargyl alcohol and its homologues substituted in the ring. With commercial cinnamyl alcohol as a starting point, a method giving good yields of phenylpropargyl alcohol is outlined.—H. Memery: The summer of 1930 and the solar variations.—W. Moycho: The formation of the pigment in Bacterium prodigiosum. The pigment (prodigiosine) always appears at the period of the strongest development: it is formed at the death of the bacterium and oxygen is necessary for its appearance.—G. Dinulescu: The biology of the horse-fly.—Edouard Ducloux and Mile. Georgette Cordier: Researches on the treatment of experimental bovine anaplasmosis in Tunis. This disease is curable, provided that the treatment is commenced sufficiently early.

The Production of Potent Antipneumococcic Serum in Rabbits

The cultivation of pneumococci in artificial mediums is not comparable to conditions as they exist in the tissues of an infected host. The in vitro growth may result in alterations in structure of the bacteria, or in the formation of bacterial metabolic products which may interfere with their antigenic properties. In order to circumvent this possibility an antigen was prepared by extracting the tissues of animals infected with pneumococci. Ross 1 has demonstrated that an active immunity can be produced in rats by feeding them tissues of animals dead from pneumococcic infection. He was of the opinion that such tissues contained a toxin, which when fed to a healthy animal might result in the production of an antitoxin. However, Ross found later that the feeding of live pneumococci from an artificial culture gave almost as good an immunity. Zinsser and Grinnell 2 attempted the immunization of horses by means of the blood-clot method. Their purpose was to obtain a localized growth of pneumococci within the animal body. It was thought that, by this method, a serum might be obtained which would have antitoxic properties, rather than purely antibacterial effects. The procedure described below combines some of the theoretical advantages of both the above methods. In the following experiments, rabbits were immunized by the inoculation of infected animal tissues, which had been previously ground, extracted, and treated with various antiseptics, in order to kill or attenuate the pneumococci present. The blood of the rabbits was finally tested for protective action against pneumococcic infection in white mice. The inoculation, rather than the feeding, of infected tissue extracts has a double advantage: it is a more favorable method, in general, for the production of immune bodies; it also precludes the possibility of the destruction of any toxin in the intestinal tract.

Treatment of soft chancre with ultraviolet rays. V. Sukharev (Physiotherapy, 1927, No. 2-3)

V. Sukharev, based on the bactericidal, antitoxic and stimulating properties of ultraviolet light, tested the latter in the treatment of soft chancres and was convinced that in ultraviolet rays we have a useful treatment for ulcers of soft chancres - if used per se, or in combination with chemical preparations.

Precipitin, Lysin and Agglutinin Tests with Bile

Certain reactions of bile with toxins, blood cells, bacteria, and protein solutions simulate the antibody reactions of immune serums, and have been the object of many studies, the results of which may be briefly summarized. Antivenomous and other antitoxic properties of bile, in mixtures with the venom or toxin, are well established, but the protective value of bile injected separately is doubtful and the presence of immunologic antibodies therefore questioned. Cytolytic action on red blood cells and pneumococci, without the addition of complement, has been demonstrated for a great variety of biles. This cytolytic action, and the bacteriostatic or germicidal action demonstrated in most instances with typhoid or related organisms, have been attributed by the greater number of authors to the bile acids or salts, and to the higher unsaturated fatty acids, rather than to immune substances in the bile. These conclusions are generally based on the absence in the bile reactions of direct response to immunizing injections and of graded quantitative variations which are characteristic of serum reactions, on the inhibition by normal serums, and on the production of cytolysis and bacteriostasis with isolated acid or salt solutions. Nonspecific agglutinin for typhoid organisms and precipitin for egg white and dog serum have also been found in normal bile. Specific lysin and agglutinin have been found in the bile of immunized animals only after comparatively high titers have been attained in the serums, and perhaps more frequently are not demonstrable. Specific precipitin was not found in the one investigation reported. The detailed review of the literature follows.

Observations on the Etiology of Measles

Recently Ferry and Fisher 1 have described a small, gram-positive, aerobic, green producing streptococcus which they isolated from the blood of measles patients in the early stages of the disease. In obtaining this organism 10 cc. of blood were added to flasks of Hibler medium and any resulting growth was plated on sheep's-blood agar. They state that this organism forms a soluble toxin, which on injection into horses or rabbits is capable of producing an immune serum showing antitoxic properties. Further, by using proper dilutions of the toxin, they have elaborated a skin test similar to the Schick test and Dick test, which can be used in determining individual susceptibility to measles. In a series of papers published between 1918 and 1926 Tunnicliff2 and her associates describe a gram-positive micrococcus which they believe to be the etiologic factor of measles. This organism, which can be cultivated only under strict anaerobic conditions in the first generation, grows, when transplanted upon suitable mediums, as an aerobic greenproducing diplococcus or short chain streptococcus in subsequent generations. They have recovered this organism from the blood, sputum, nasopharyngeal secretions and the aural discharge of measles patients in the pre-eruptive stage and in the early period of the rash. They believe that they have produced a modified form of measles by inoculating susceptible animals with this organism. The serums of these inoculated animals possess the biological properties of immune sera. These workers have not as yet reproduced the disease in man. Caronia 3 isolated an anaerobic gram-negative diplococcus from the blood, bone marrow, nasopharyngeal secretions and cerebrospinal fluid of measles patients using the Tarozzi-Noguchi culture technic. This organism is agglutinated in high dilution by the serum from convalescent measles patients. He states that he reproduced the disease in young

Results obtained with the Dick test in normal individuals and in acute and convalescent cases of scarlet fever.

Studies have been made with the Dick test among normal individuals along lines similar to those carried out with the Schick test. The susceptibility by age groups from birth to adult life has been investigated and found to correspond closely to the percentage susceptibility to diphtheria, as shown by the Schick test. Comparative studies have been made with the reaction on mothers and their offspring. The results indicate that the reactions are similar in the mother and offspring during the first six months of life. The antibodies are transmitted through the placenta and persist in most infants for a period of about six to nine months. The blood sera of individuals who gave positive or negative Dick reactions have been studied for their properties in causing the extinction test of Schultz-Charlton in a fresh scarlet fever rash; also for their power to neutralize the test fluid for the Dick reaction. The blood serum of a person giving a “negative” or a “pseudo” Dick reaction causes blanching of the rash and neutralizes the test toxin; that of a “positive or a combined” reaction causes no blanching of the rash and does not neutralize the test toxin. The Dick test is positive as a rule during the first two days of scarlet fever but becomes less positive toward the end of seven days and negative toward the end of ten to fifteen days, when the antitoxic properties begin to appear in the patient's serum. This can be shown by its power to blanch the scarlet fever rash and neutralize the Dick test toxin. The neutralization of the test toxin is a more delicate index of the presence of antibodies in a serum than its property to cause blanching of a scarlet fever rash.

The Principles of Immunology

THE researches of Pasteur on immunisation against fowl cholera, swine erysipelas, anthrax, and rabies, and the discovery by Behring and Kitasato of the antitoxic properties of the blood serum, constituted the beginnings of the science of immunology, which since 1890 has grown to incredible dimensions and in every direction has insinuated itself into the domains of practical diagnosis and therapeutics. It is no longer within the capacity of one or even two individuals to deal authoritatively with the subject, although this was attempted, and with a fair measure of success, a year or two ago by such a master as Jules Bordet. Naturally many text-books exist on immunity, and the present work of Karsner and Ecker must be ranked as one of the more successful among these. The authors have handled a goodly part of the periodical literature, and have applied to their reading and study a critical acumen which is conspicuous by its absence in most books of this class. Their knowledge is of a most modern kind, and they have thrown over allegiance to the Ehrlich “side chain” hypothesis which dominated immunology for so many years. Naturally in a work of its size Karsner and Ecker's book is highly condensed, and is, in fact, restricted to fundamental principles. They state that it is primarily designed for medical students and busy practitioners. As a text-book for students working for the higher examinations it can be Cordially recommended, and it may possibly be read with profit by the more intellectual types of practitioners who have previously prepared themselves for the intricacies of the subject by the perusal of some more elementary work on the subject. The Principles of Immunology. By Prof. H. T. Karsner Dr. E. E. Ecker. Pp. xvii+309+2 plates. (London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1921.) 21s. net.

Societies and Academies

Societies and Academies

The Oral Administration Of Antitoxins

This paper is a report of the later results of a series of investigations which were published in this Journal1 in 1906. At that time our results warranted us in concluding that diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins, when given per mouth to experimental animals, were absorbed in sufficient quantities to protect those animals against several fatal doses of diphtheria and tetanus toxins. We were also able to show that the oral administration of antidiphtheric and antitetanic serums to children was followed by an absorption of the antitoxins, particularly that of diphtheria, in sufficient quantities to show markedly antitoxic properties in the blood of the treated individuals. These results were obtained by the use of certain drugs which apparently inhibited digestion and promoted absorption. There was also reported some preliminary work showing that the toxins of diphtheria and tetanus were absorbed from the alimentary canal of guinea-pigs, provided that digestion was inhibited. A series of five children were injected subcutaneously with from 320 to 1,040 units of diphtheria antitoxin, and careful tests showed that only a part of this could be detected in the blood of the treated individuals. A more direct comparison between the oral administration and the hypodermic injection could not be drawn. However, assuming that the antitoxin should be given to children as a prophylactic, we believed that the results obtained from the administration per mouth compared very favorably with those from subcutaneous injection. After having carried on the work far enough to show that toxins and antitoxins, under certain conditions, are absorbed with a reasonable degree of uniformity when administered per mouth, we attempted to demonstrate more precisely the conditions necessary for such absorption. In our previous work it was found that the most uniform results were obtained when trikresol, salol, chloroform, and opium were

PRETUBERCULAR CONDITIONS AND THE TREATMENT OF ASSOCIATED ANEMIA BY HYPODERMIC INJECTIONS OF IRON AND ARSENIC.

It is a well-recognized fact that pulmonary tuberculosis is the cause of more deaths than any other one disease, except pneumonia. In the state of Michigan our mortality record for some years has averaged above 2,500, while in Detroit our last report shows that 327 individuals died from this cause. We are all familiar with the fact that nearly one-seventh of all persons die of tuberculosis, and more than 50 per cent. of the remainder give postmortem evidences of tuberculous foci that had remained dormant or succumbed entirely to the antitoxic properties of our cells. If this latter astounding and well-conceded fact is true, seven out of ten individuals that reach late adult life have been infected with tuberculosis. The profession and the laity are awakened to the stupendous problem at hand. Many of us appreciate our inefficiency in battling with the ravages of this disease. We are especially apt

THE RELATION OF THE TOXICITY OF DIPHTHERIA TOXIN TO ITS NEUTRALIZING VALUE UPON ANTITOXIN AT DIFFERENT STAGES IN THE GROWTH OF CULTURE

THE RELATION OF THE TOXICITY OF DIPHTHERIA TOXIN TO ITS NEUTRALIZING VALUE UPON ANTITOXIN AT DIFFERENT STAGES IN THE GROWTH OF CULTURE

THE RATIONAL TREATMENT OF DIPHTHERIA.

Diphtheria, more than any other disease, has taught physicians how little can be accomplished by any treatment not fully based on a clear understanding of the causes and determining conditions concerned in the production of the disturbances. All speculative reasoning has not yet given us a single remedial measure which can be relied upon to influence the outcome of that disease. Fortunately, however, recent studies have now opened the definite prospect of combating successfully diphtheritic infection by employment of the very same means by which the system protects itself during spontaneous recovery. One of the most fundamental recent discoveries in pathology was the demonstration—less than four years ago—byBehring(in conjunction withKitasato) of the antitoxic properties of the blood of immune animals. It was shown that in diphtheria (as well as in tetanus) the recovery from infection or from poisoning with the toxins of the specific bacteria, was accompanied