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antitoxin |
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antitoxin, any of a group of antibodies formed in the body as a response to the introduction of poisonous products, or toxins toxin, poison produced by living organisms. Toxins are classified as either exotoxins or endotoxins. Exotoxins are a diverse group of soluble proteins released into the surrounding tissue by living bacterial cells. ..... Click the link for more information. . By introducing small amounts of a specific toxin into the healthy body, it is possible to stimulate the production of antitoxin so that the body's defenses are already established against invasion by the bacteria or other organisms that produce the toxin. See immunity immunity, ability of an organism to resist disease by identifying and destroying foreign substances or organisms. Although all animals have some immune capabilities, little is known about nonmammalian immunity. ..... Click the link for more information. . antitoxinAntibody formed in the body in reaction to a bacterial toxin, which it can neutralize. People who have recovered from bacterial diseases often develop specific antitoxins that give them immunity against recurrence. Injecting an animal (usually a horse) with increasing doses of toxin produces a high concentration of antitoxin in the blood. The resulting highly concentrated preparation of antitoxins is called an antiserum. The first antitoxin developed (1890) was specific to diphtheria; today, antitoxins are also used to treat botulism, dysentery, gas gangrene, and tetanus. |
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| Joseph Kinyoun, the founder of the Hygienic Laboratory--predecessor of the National Institutes of Health--learned the procedure for preparing diphtheria antitoxin at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Cinchona (and then purified quinine) won ready acceptance, as did the diphtheria antitoxin developed by Emile Roux in the 1890s, because, Ackerman argues, they demonstrably worked; there was even some popular demand in the later decades for disinfection services, in part, she suggests, because the treatment of infected bedding killed vermin. In a population-based study in the Netherlands, diphtheria antitoxin antibodies were measured with a toxin-binding inhibition assay in 9,134 sera from the general population and religious communities refusing vaccination. |
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diphtheria antitoxin
