Edward Jenner: English physician who pioneered the concept of vaccines

Edward Jenner is well known English physician around the world for his innovative contribution to immunization and the ultimate eradication of smallpox. His work is widely regarded as the foundation of immunology—despite the fact that he was neither the first to suggest that infection with cowpox conferred specific immunity to smallpox nor the first to attempt cowpox inoculation for this purpose. In May 1796, Edward Jenner found a young dairymaid, Sarah Nelms, who had fresh cowpox lesions on her hands and arms.

On May 14, 1796, using matter from Nelms’ lesions, he inoculated an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps. Subsequently, the boy developed mild fever and discomfort in the axillae. Nine days after the procedure he felt cold and had lost his appetite, but on the next day he was much better. In July 1796, Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with matter from a fresh smallpox lesion. No disease developed, and Jenner concluded that protection was complete.

Nearly two years were to elapse between Dr. Edward Jenner's first vaccination in May 1796 and his subsequent experiments, which began in March 1798. In all, perhaps 15 persons were vaccinated. Publication of the findings quickly followed. Jenner published at his own expense, in September 1798, his now famous Inquiry (shorthand for its proper title, An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the name of the Cow Pox).

By the summer of 1799, Jenner's observations had been confirmed by a number of practitioners, and upwards of 1000 persons had been given the vaccine.

Subsequently, Jenner followed-up his original publication with a 1799 “Further Observations on the Variolae Vaccinae,” in which he detailed how to recognize typical Cow Pox lesions and to discriminate them from other similar pustular lesions that were not Cow Pox.
Edward Jenner: English physician who pioneered the concept of vaccines

Élie Metchnikoff contributions to immunology

Élie Metchnikoff (1845-1916) was a Russian immunologists and microbiologist and a Nobel Prize winner who first developed and popularized the idea that lactic acid-producing bacteria, particularly Lactobacilli, were beneficial to health.

In the early 1900s, Metchnikoff promoted the consumption of the yoghurt bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus because he observed that the yoghurt consuming Bulgarians appeared to have healthier and more long-lived people that other groups he studied.

Metchnikoff developed and perpetuated the theory that not only does the intestinal microbiota control the outcome of infection by enteric pathogens, but it also regulates the natural chronic toxemia which plays a major role in aging and mortality.

In 1884, Metchnikoff announced a novel theory of the protective role of inflammation. He discovered phagocytosis and recognized the importance of this phenomenon in the defense against infections.

The discovery of phagocytosis by Metchnikoff marks the birth of immunology. His early research was concerned with the identification of primordial embryologic structures and functions that could link them to the evolution of species; in other words, he was searching for a link between ontogeny and phylogeny.

In 1908, the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded jointly to Élie Metchnikoff and Paul Ehrlich who stressed the role of humoral antibodies on immunity.
Élie Metchnikoff contributions to immunology

History of immunology in modern era

John Fewster (1738-1824), a surgeon in Gloucestershire, England observed that a person who had been naturally exposed to cowpox, a viral disease of cattle related to smallpox, did not exhibit the normal mild case from smallpox when variolated.

He presented his observation to London Mdical Society in 1765 but never investigated further.

In 1798, Edward Jenner (1749-1823) inoculated a young man by named James Phipps with material obtained from a cowpox lesion. The results were conclusive but were met with great resistance by the Church.

It is the first demonstration of vaccination (smallpox vaccination). Jenner was a physician who practiced in the rural English countryside. As a country doctor, he was familiar with the ancient and unsafe technique of variolation – the administration of biological matter from smallpox sufferers to create immunity among those who survive the procedure.

One of which was that milkmaids who had caught cowpox never became infected with the more serious smallpox. Jenner suspected there to be a connection between the fact that milkmaids were commonly known to get cowpox, but not smallpox. That’s why he decided to try this theory by pacing the scab from a cowpox lesion into a cut made in arm of a young man James Phipps.

Élie Metchnikoff

Modern immunology begins with the research of Metchnikoff (1845-1916), who discovered the phenomenon of phagocytosis in starfish and extrapolated it to macrophages in humans as cells that engulf infections agents; this was the beginning of cellular immunology.

In 1840 the first modern proposal of the germ theory of disease was proposed Jakob Henle. He was a German physician, pathologist and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney. Paul Ehrlich investigated the formation of antibodies recognized later as protein that destroyed infectious agents.

Ehrlich predicted autoimmunity calling it “horror autotoxicus”. He is the one coined the term of “chemotherapy”.

Louis Pasteur played a pivotal role in the evolution of the science. While Pasteur's work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris was concerned with bacterial infectious disease, he was most concerned with the prevention of diseases that bacteria caused and how the human body was changed subsequent to infection so as to resist further insults. Louis Pasteur became the first experimental immunologist.

Around 1960, it was appreciated that lymphocytes are the cells that mediate the immune reactions and experimentation moved for the first time from in vivo to in vitro, which allowed one to manipulate and investigate an immune reaction of cell population. Kendall A. Smith in 1983 discovered of the first interleukins 1 and 2.
History of immunology in modern era

History of Immunology

The discipline of immunology grew out of the observation that individuals who had recovered from certain infectious disease were there after protect from the disease.

The Latin worlds immunitas and immunis have their origin on the legal concept of an exemption. Initially in ancient Rome they disrobed the exemption of an individual from service or duty.

In 1885, Louis Pasteur administered the first vaccine to a human, a young body, who had bitten repeatedly by a rabid dog. Louis Pasteur is often describe as the father of immunology, but vaccination was practiced long before his lifetime at a time when nothing was known of the disease causing organism.

In 1890, German physician Emil Adolph von Behring discovered antibodies through his pioneering research on immunization against diphtheria and tetanus by injecting what he term ‘antitoxins’.

Emil von Behring and Paul Erlich may be considered as found fathers of the adapted immunity although their works were restricted to the humoral (antibody-mediated) immune response.

According to history a primitive form of smallpox vaccination was used in China from tenth century. It was also used in the thirteenth century in Egypt. During 1600s Turkey already practiced variolation, where people were inoculated by scratching the skin with smallpox taken from pustules of infected people.

In 430 BC Thucydides, the greatest historian of Peloponnesian wrote that only those who had recovered from the plaque could nurse the sick because they would nor contract the disease a second time. He referred the plaque of smallpox that swept Greece after the Peloponnesian War.

In 1798 English physician Edward Jenner has published his important memoir on the use of cowpox material to protect human beings from smallpox. However immunology became a true science only in the 19th century in the mind and the work of Louis Pasteur.
History of Immunology

History of Immunology

History of Immunology
Ancient Times
Immunology studies the relationship between the body systems, pathogens, and immunity. Primitive man knew about disease and its ravages. The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (2000 B.C. – Mesopotamian hero) records the presence of pestilence and disease. The other writings from old dynasties of ancient Egypt, one finds even more descriptions of disease. They even can identify the disease. In those days, disease and pestilence was punishment rendering as a result of “bad deeds” or “evil thoughts”. Even in the Old Testament is filled with pestilence that God wrought upon those who “crossed” him. From these writings, it is equally apparent that man knew that once he had been afflicted with disease, if he survived, he was normally not able to contract it again.

In 430 B.C. Thucydides recorded that while the plaque was raging in Athens, the sick and dying would have received no attention had it not been for those individuals who had already contracted the disease and recovered and recognized their “immune” status. Beginning around 1000 A.D., the ancient Chinese practiced a form of immunization by inhaling dried powders derived from the crusts of smallpox lesions. Around the fifteenth century, a practice of applying powdered smallpox "crusts" and inserting them with a pin or “poking” device into the skin became commonplace. The process was referred to as variolation and became quite common in the Middle East. However, the primary intent of variolation was that of “preserving” the beauty of their daughters and no mention was made of saving lives.

Modern Times
In 1798, Edward Jenner inoculated a young man by named James Phipps with material obtained from a cowpox lesion. The results were conclusive but were met with great resistance by the Church.

It is the first demonstration of vaccination (smallpox vaccination). Jenner was a physician who practiced in the rural English countryside. As a country doctor, he was familiar with the region’s medical “old wives tales.” One of which was that milkmaids who had caught cowpox never became infected with the more serious smallpox. Jenner suspected there to be a connection between the fact that milkmaids were commonly known to get cowpox, but not smallpox. That’s why he decided to try this theory by pacing the scab from a cowpox lesion into a cut made in arm of a young man James Phipps.

In 1840 the first modern proposal of the germ theory of disease was proposed Jakob Henle. He was a German physician, pathologist and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney.

Louis Pasteur played a pivotal role in the evolution of the science. While Pasteur's work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris was concerned with bacterial infectious disease, he was most concerned with the prevention of diseases that bacteria caused and how the human body was changed subsequent to infection so as to resist further insults. Louis Pasteur became the first experimental immunologist.

In 1900, Paul Ehrlich who was a German Scientist proposed antibody formation theory. Ehrlich predicted autoimmunity calling it “horror autotoxicus”. He is the one coined the term of “chemotherapy”.

Kendall A. Smith in 1983 discovered of the first interleukins 1 and 2.
History of Immunology