Emil Behring really a "Saviour Of Children" ????

Emil Von Behring

Emil von Behring, born Emil Adolf Behring, was a German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first one awarded, for his discovery of a diphtheria antitoxin.

He was Born in 15 Mar 1854, Hansdorf (Now Lawice), Prussia(now Poland) and died in 31st Mar 1917 Marburg, Germany.

Prize motivation: "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths." 

He was widely known as a "saviour of children," as diphtheria used to be a major cause of child death.

His Work was Amazing

Many diseases are caused by microorganisms, but the body can use its immune system to defend itself against attacks and become immune to new attacks. As part of its defenses, the immune system forms antibodies that neutralize poisons, or toxins, that are formed by bacteria. Emil von Behring and other researchers showed that by means of blood plasma, or serum, antibodies could be transferred from one person or animal to another person, who also then became immune. In 1900 Emil von Behring introduced serum from immune horses as a method to cure and prevent diphtheria.

Diphtheria and Tetanus

Diphtheria is caused by bacterium that thrives in poor sanitary conditions. In the late nineteenth century over 60,000 children died each year in the German Empire from the disease.

Tetanus is caused by an infection with bacterium that lives in the soil. At that time it was a leading cause of death in wars, killing the wounded.

Behring worked with Koch for several years at the institute developing his theory of antitoxins could help fight these diseases. He collaborated with Shibasaburo Kitasato, a guest researcher from Tokyo University, on identifying the substance that provided resistance against tetanus in rabbits.

The experiments involved taking blood samples from a rabbit that had been immunized against tetanus and injecting the serum into non-immune mice, which themselves were infected the following day with tetanus bacteria. The results showed that the pre-treated mice became immune and did not show any symptoms of tetanus, while the control animals died shortly after being infected. They showed that antitoxins (antibodies) produced by one animal could be removed and used to immunize other animals.

They jointly published a paper in 1890 proposing a blood serum therapy to induce immunity for tetanus and also for diphtheria.

The following year Behring worked with Doctor Erich Wernicke, carrying out experiments on guinea pigs. They were successful in immunizing guinea pigs against diphtheria. They also showed that other guinea pigs injected with the serum from immunized guinea pigs and then infected with diphtheria bacteria did not become ill.

Behring and Wernicke wanted to produce a diphtheria serum that would work on humans, but this would cost money to produce. They invested their own money to produce serums from larger animals, such as sheep.

In 1892, Behring received funding from Farbwerke Hoechst which in turn would obtain the rights to produce and distribute the serum. From 1894, Farbwerke Hoechst began supplying phials of diphtheria serum.

Progress was still slow so Behring turned to using horses at a vet school to obtain larger quantities of serum. There was still, however, an issue with the serum potency.

In 1897 physiologist Paul Ehrlich realized that the potency of antitoxin (antibodies) reached a maximum strength, not initially, but after a certain amount of time. With this knowledge, standardizing the serum became possible. Clinical trials on sick children in Berlin hospitals were carried out and mortality rates of diphtheria were halved.

In 1913 Behring devised a new toxin-antitoxin preparation that gave increased immunity to diphtheria.

Contributions to Microbiology

The Nobel Prize Behring won was for his work in serum therapy. Serum is the part of your blood that is devoid of proteins and cells that help your blood clot. Serum contains things like antibodies, protein molecules that help neutralize, destroy, or target for destruction potentially dangerous substances or entities inside a person's body.

In particular, it was Behring's work with serum and the disease Diphtheria, which ultimately helped him win the Nobel Prize. Diphtheria is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The bacteria that causes this disease may produce a terrible toxin which can damage multiple parts of the body. Left untreated, this infection is often fatal.

Now you can better understand Behring's most important contribution to microbiology. While at the Institute for Hygiene, Behring began to study the interactions between blood serum and toxins. Behring and his co-workers realized that if you took the serum from animals immune to the toxin produced by a Species of Bacteria and then injected that serum into animals who weren't immune to the Toxin, The letter would be rendered immune to the toxin as well.

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