This document provides an introduction to immunology. It discusses how immunology is the study of how our bodies protect against foreign substances and invading organisms. It then gives a brief history of important discoveries in immunology, including early descriptions of acquired immunity by Thucydides, variolation practices in China and Turkey, Edward Jenner's development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, Louis Pasteur's attenuated vaccines for several diseases in the late 1800s, early insights into immunity by Metchnikoff, von Behring, and Kitasato, and the development of monoclonal antibodies by Milstein and Köhler.

1. INTRODUCTION TO
IMMUNOLOGY
By,
Rajamehala M
Assistant Professor,
Vivekanandha College of Engineering for
Women,
Tiruchengode 1

2. 2
Immunology
Immunology is the study of our
protection from foreign
macromolecules or invading
organisms and our responses to
them.
Host – e.g. me!!!!
Foreign macromolecule, antigen – e.g.
virus protein, worm, parasite
(Everything that should not be in my
body)

3.  Protect against pathogens
 Eliminate damaged or malignant
cells
3

4. 4
A Short History of Immunology
430 B.C: Peloponesian War, Thucydides
describes plague – the ones who had
recovered from the disease could nurse
the sick without getting the disease a
second time
15th Century: Chinese and Turks
use dried crusts of smallpox as
”vaccine”-Variolation
1798: Edward Jenner – smallpox
vaccine

5. March towards modern times…
1718- Lady Montague
became aware of a
practice, called
variolation or inoculation,
and introduced it to
Britain after first having
her own children treated.
1774 – Benjamin Justy
1776- Geo. Washington
Montague Lady Mary Wortley
(1689-1762)

6. Jenner - Smallpox vaccine
 Noticed that milkmades that had
contracted cowpox did NOT get smallpox
 Test on an 8 year old boy, injected
cowpox into him (NOT very nice……)
 Follwed by exposure to smallpox
 Vaccine was invented (latin vacca
means ”cow”)
 1989- WHO announced smallpox was
eradicated from the world
6

7. Edward Jenner
Born on May 17, 1749, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England,
Died Jan. 26, 1823.
As a teenager, while learning to be a physician, he heard a young
farm girl tell a doctor that she could not contract smallpox
because she had once had cowpox (a very mild disease). This
started him thinking about a vaccine.
After years of experimenting, on May 14, 1796, Edward Jenner
carried out a famous experiment on a healthy 8-year-old boy,
James Phipps, with cowpox. He took material from a burst
pustule on the arm of Sarah Nelmes who had apparently
contracted cowpox. He then deliberately exposed the boy to
virulent variola virus two months later and found that the child
was protected, showing only a mild inflammation around the site
where the variola was injected.
Some record shows that in 1789 he had already experimented
vaccination on his own son, then aged one-and-a-half, with the
swine pox, followed by conventional smallpox inoculation.
Sarah Nelmes’

8. 1879- discovered that aged
bacterial cultures of
Pasteurella lost
virulence.Referred to
injection of weakened
culture a “vaccine” in
honor of Jenner
1881- He applied the
same technique vs.
Anthrax ….and then
rabies
8
Louis Pasteur

9. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
Attenuated vaccines for cholera,
anthrax, and rabies
On July 4, 1886, 9-year-old Joseph
Meister was bitten repeatedly by a
rabid dog. Pasteur treated him with
his attenuated rabies vaccine two days
later. Meister survived.
Joseph Meister later become a
gatekeeper for the Pasteur Institute.
In 1940, when he was ordered by
the German occupiers to open
Pasteur's crypt, Joseph Meister
refused and committed suicide!

10. First insights into mechanics of immunity…
1880’s- Metchnikoff discovered
phagocytic cells that ingest microbes
and particles
cells conferred immunity
1890- von Behring and Kitasato discovered
blood sera could transfer immunity
liquid of blood conferred immunity
Q: Which confers immunity… cells
or seum?
Emil von Behring
S. Kitasato
Elie Metchnikoff

11. A: Both cells and serum contribute to
immunity!
• 1930’s – early techniques made it easier
to study humoral elements [than
cellular ones].
-discovery of active component of blood
– gamma globulin “protein”
• 1950’s – discovery of T and B cells
Later discoveries linked lymphocytes
to both cellular and humoral
immunity

12. Emil Adolf von Behring (18 54 – 1917)
 Awarded first Nobel Prize in
physiology, 1901
 Student of Koch
With Kitasato and Wernike,
discovered anti-toxin for Diphtheria
and Tetanus and applied as therapy.

13. Paul Ehrlich (1854 – 1915)
Developed a series of tissue-staining dyes
including that for tubercle bacillus.
Worked with Koch. Developed anti-toxin
(Diphtheria) and hemalysis
Side-chain theory of antibody formation:
"surface receptors bound by lock & key; Ag
stimulated receptors"
 Shared 1908 Nobel Prize with Metchnikoff.

14. Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916)
Formed the basis of leukocyte
phagocytosis.
Birth of cellular immunology
Shared Nobel Prize with Ehrlich in 1908

15. Milstein (b. 1927) and Köhler (1946-1995)
 Monoclonal antibody