History of immunology
- Immunology is a science that examines the structure and function of the immune system.
- It originates from medicine and early studies on the causes of immunity to disease.
- The earliest known reference to immunity was during the plague of Athens in 430 BC.
- Thucydides noted that people who had recovered from a previous bout of the disease could nurse the sick without contracting the illness a second time.[3]
- In the 18th century, Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis made experiments with scorpion venom and observed that certain dogs and mice were immune to this venom.[4]
- In the 10th century, Persian physician al-Razi (also known as Rhazes) wrote the first recorded theory of acquired immunity,[5][6]:6 noting that a smallpox bout protected its survivors from future infections.
- Although he explained the immunity in terms of "excess moisture" getting expelled from the blood—therefore preventing the disease to occur for a second time—this theory explained many observations about smallpox known during this time.[6]:7
- These and other observations of acquired immunity were later exploited by Louis Pasteur in his development of vaccination and his proposed germ theory of disease.[7]
- Pasteur's theory was in direct opposition to contemporary theories of disease, such as the miasma theory.
- It was not until Robert Koch's 1891 proofs, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1905, that microorganisms were confirmed as the cause of infectious disease.[8]
- Viruses were confirmed as human pathogens in 1901, with the discovery of the yellow fever virus by Walter Reed.[9]
- Immunology made a great advance towards the end of the 19th century, through rapid developments, in the study of humoral immunity and cellular immunity.[10]
- Particularly important was the work of Paul Ehrlich, who proposed the side-chain theory to explain the specificity of the antigen-antibody reaction; his contributions to the understanding of humoral immunity were recognized by the award of a Nobel Prize in 1908, which was jointly awarded to the founder of cellular immunology, Elie Metchnikoff.[11]
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