Paul Ehrlich's Influence on Modern Microbiology and Immunology - Essay Example

Paul Ehrlichs Influence on Modern Microbiology and Immunology Paul Ehrlich was a scientist from Germany who was among the first individuals to get involved in and found what came to be known as applied organic chemistry. Among his earliest work was his involvement in dyestuffs and staining methods which he intended for use in the microscopic study of bacteria. Starting in 1891, however, he came to use this method for the purpose of developing drugs which would be used for the elimination of some of the bacteria which he had identified as having been the cause of many of the diseases that existed at that time. Though his early studies of antitoxins, his work developed further into a serious examination of the diverse number of chemicals which were available to him for the purpose of identifying those which could be used to fight such bacterial species as treponema pallidum, which was the main agent that was responsible for the development of syphilis (Raju 662). The latter had for a long time been a serious disease not only in Europe but also all over the world and had developed into a serious public health problem which needed to be dealt with swiftly. Ehrlich’s contribution to microbiology in this case came from the study of the chemicals which were seen to have a discriminating affinity to certain types of organism or tissues and because of this research, he and a fellow scientist, Sakahiro Hata, ended up developing salvarsan, an arsenical that killed spirochaete without having any mortal effects on the patients on whom it was administered. Despite the fact that this arsenical had some toxic effects, it was still a great advancement in the field of applied organic chemistry, and it was for this reason, among others, that Ehrlich was honoured with the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1908. He was a pioneer in the conducting of experiments which involved the use of chemical drugs for the treatment of diseases and this was done through the study of the diverse cells and tissues in the human body. These ended up revealing the fundamental principles which lay behind the immune system of the human body and this helped a great deal on the establishment of the use of chemotherapy in medicine. In addition, his development of salvarsan ensured that syphilis would, for the first time in history, be cured and this discovery may be considered to be amongst the greatest discoveries in the modern world because it came to reveal the potential which the systematic research in drugs had for the development of cures for other diseases (Sepkowitz 291). The development of the field now known as haematology came about through the efforts of Ehrlich, who conducted studies of how blood cells reacted when dye was applied to them. This new field came to be concerned with the study of blood and those organs which formed it, and as such came to be and is still recognised as one of the most prominent scientific fields. In fact, many of the terms which Ehrlich coined when conducting his various researches have come into common use in medicine and these involve the term chemotherapy (Elliott 53). Ehrlich had many influences in his early life that inspired the development of his interest in science and scientific methods of research and among the most influential individuals in his early life was his cousin Karl Weigert. The latter was a well known pathologist in his time and it was he who helped Ehrlich develop an interest in the study of cells through his teaching him how to dye cells so that he could have a better view of them under the microscope. From this time onward, Ehrlich became engrossed in his research on dye reactions on cells and this interest continued even after he joined university and it was his research which may, for the most part, have led to the development of modern microbiology as well as immunology. In his doctorial thesis, which he presented in 1878 and was entitled Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Histological Staining, it can be suggested that during such an early period of his suggests that even at this early stage in his vocation, he had already come to the conclusion that his chosen field or research had a huge potential in the possibility and discovery of the development of those chemicals that would be essential for cures in the future. While conducting his experiments with dyes, Ehrlich came to gain the knowledge of how to manipulate these dyes to ensure that they gave him specific effects. An example of this was his use of methylene blue dye to stain nerve cells and the use of this dye worked so well that it did not stain the tissue around the nerve cells (Schwartz 870). The experiments with dye reactions that he conducted were the basis upon which his career was founded and they led to two significant roles in the development of modern science. The first of these was that it permitted the examination of all types of cells, both healthy and unhealthy by scientists as well as those microorganisms which were known to or had the potential of causing disease. This capability by scientists led to the development of new methods of medical diagnosis as well as the study of cells and these came to significantly contribute to the development of modern microbiology as well as the discovery of the cure for many diseases which were deemed incurable. The second and most significant role that Ehrlich’s experiments with dyes played in the development of science is that they revealed that certain cells are attracted to certain types of dyes and this meant that both chemical and physical reactions were taking place within the said cells. He came up with the theory that chemical reactions were responsible for the biological processes of life and as such, then it was possible that chemicals could be used to heal diseased cells and to destroy microorganisms that were harmful (Shukla et al 309). To prove his theory, Ehrlich started the study of the chemical structures of the dyes that he used and came up with diverse theories concerning the various chemical reactions that were possibly taking place in the human body in the presence of a broad spectrum of chemical agents. If was these efforts, which led Ehrlich to begin his study of the human immune system, and it is mainly because of his research that there developed the field that is now known as immunology. He came to conduct studies of blood under the microscope and while it can be found in a diversity of forms, through his dye method, Ehrlich began identifying these forms. The methodical classification and cataloguing of the cells originating in blood led to the development of the field of haematology. To further improve himself in his field of study, Ehrlich kept in constant touch with chemists, and the latter not only provided him with further information concerning the development of new chemicals, but they also ensured that he was constantly supplied with these new chemicals as well as dyes. His steady work with dyes ended up in a spectacular achievement after he heard that Robert Koch had identified the microorganism that caused tuberculosis. Ehrlich immediately recognised that Koch’s method was faulty and he immediately set to work conducting his own experiments on how to more effectively identify the tubercle bacillus through staining, and this technique has remained in use ever since. This can perhaps be considered to be one of the greatest discoveries of the modern age because it inevitably paved the way not only for the development of a cure for tuberculosis but also for the development of vaccines whose purpose was to prevent this disease. A small private laboratory was set up in Berlin by Ehrlich after receiving financial help from his father-in-law making him to be honored in 1890 and appointed Extraordinary Professor at the University of Berlin. Ehrlich was invited to join Robert Koch at the Institute for Infectious Diseases which was created by the Prussian Government for Koch; Koch began an Immunology research at the institution with a description that a mice fed or injected with toxins ricin and abrin are able to develop antitoxins. Moreover, Koch proved that antibodies are able to be passed from mother to an offspring during the process of breastfeeding. Ehrlich’s collaboration with Koch and Emil von Behring enabled them find a cure for diphtheria which was one of the deadly child diseases affecting children at that time. Von Behring identified antibodies to diphtheria despite facing difficulties when transforming the discovery into safe cure for humans and being potent at the same time. Blood drawn from goats and horses were infected with the disease and later the scientists came and worked together in concentrating and purifying effective antitoxin; Ehrlich’s contribution to the cure was the method used in measuring a dose that is effective. Diphtheria antitoxin was commercialized in 1892 and manufactured by Höchst Chemical Works; royalties that came from the drug in form of profits made Erhlich and von Behring wealthy. Ehrlich was urged by von Behring to accept the government’s position of monitoring production of diphtheria serum in 1885; there were conflicts of interests clauses which obliged Erhlich to withdraw from the agreement made on profit sharing. Von Behring stood by diphtheria antitoxin and this made him a wealthy man, they both quarreled making them part ways later; it was not clear the main reason for their parting and this certainly this could not help the relationship present which was tumultuous (Stehr 451). Both scientists exchanged news that was scientific and personal even though they never met again. The Prussian administration requested Ehrlich in June 1896 to assist in directing a newly formed Institute for Serum Research and Testing; this was the first time for Ehrlich to have his own institution. The Royal Institute for Experimental Therapy was started after Ehrlich’s acceptance on November 1899, Ehrlich reinstated as the director until the time of his death sixteen years later; Ehrlich’s years in Frankfurt were some of his most productive during his life. During the opening of the Institute for Experimental therapy, Ehrlich described his side-chain theory on how antibodies work; the appendages on benzene molecules that allow the appendages to react with other chemicals are given the name side-chain. Ehrlich’s belief was that the molecules have similar side-chains and that it linked nutrients, infectious toxins, molecules and other substances, and while this theory turned out to be false although it led to hosting of new discoveries and guide of his future research during Ehrlich’s effort to prove the theory (Sörgel 6). The beginning of chemotherapy started with Ehrlich’s moving to Frankfurt where he set up a diverse number of chemical agents against a mass of various microorganisms that were categorized as dangerous. The reason behind sleeping sickness, which was a deadly disease that was most prevalent in Africa, was ascertained by scientists in 1903; this disease is caused by a variety of trypanosomes which are a type of parasitic protozoans. Kiyoshi Shiga, a Japanese scientist assisted Ehrlich in finding a dye that was able to destroy trypanosomes in infected mice; by 1904, Ehrlich discovered a dye and it was dubbed trypan red. Ehrlich’s success with trypan spurred his testing of other chemicals against disease and Ehrlich relied on his assistants when conducting methodical and painstaking experiments that involved the use of enormous range of chemicals. There were a series of instructions on colored cards that were used in providing instructions when directing the work, this form of management strategy failed to endear Ehrlich to his lab associates hence it failed to allow the associates to carry out their own research, the approach used by Ehrlich was successful (Soderqvist 449). For instance, he asked the personnel to pay no attention to the chemical composition of atoxyl notion; they therefore proceeded with the work founded on chemical specifications. Two medical scientists working with Ehrlich were appalled at Ehrlich’s scientific heresy and this action ended their employment at the laboratory; the hypothesis concerning atoxyl turned out to be correct and it eventually led to chemical cure of syphilis. By September 1906 the laboratory became a division of Georg Speyer Haus for Chemotherapeutical Research which was a research institute that was endowed by George Speyer’s widow for the aim of enduring Ehrlich’s work of chemotherapy. During the opening of the new laboratory, Ehrlich gave a speech and used the phrase magic bullets which were an illustration of his hopes of finding chemical compounds capable of attacking microorganisms that are offending or malignant cells while leaving healthy tissues untouched (Schwartz 1079). The work of Ehrlich on immunity and his contributions to diphtheria antitoxin was honored with a Nobel prize in physiology or medicine, Ehrlich shared this prize with Metchnikoff who is a Russian bacteriologist. Ehrlich laboratory had already tested more than 300 chemical compounds against syphilis and trypanosomes by the time it joined Speyer Haus; each of the tests were given laboratory number which were numbered in the nine hundreds before he realized that compound 606 was one that had high potent drug effective for fighting syphilis and relapsing fever. An assistant committed an error making compound 606 be overlooked for a period nearing two years until the time Sahashiro experimented it again; by June 10, 1909, Hata together with Ehrlich filed a patent for 606 to be used in fighting relapsing fever (Prull 332). One of the favorable results of 606 when fighting syphilis was announced during the International Medicine Congress that was held at Wiesbaden in 1910; there was much emphasis on preliminary results even though news had already spread on the presence of a cure for a disease that had been wide spread and devastating throughout Europe and America, this made Ehrlich be besieged with requests for the drugs. Ehrlich was aware that any mishandling of the dosage is able to blind or kill a patient, he therefore, begged physicians to wait until he tests 606 on twenty thousand patients. This did not stop the demand for the drug making George Speyer Haus manufacture and distribute 65,000 units of 606 to several physicians in several parts of the world. Large scale production of 606 was taken over by Höchst Chemical Works and the drug was given the commercial name Salvarsan; the next four years witnessed reports of patient’s death and maiming as a result of doctors failing to administer Salvarsan properly. It can therefore be said that Paul Ehrlich was instrumental in the development of modern microbiology and immunology and it is most likely because of his work that many of the cures and vaccines for the diverse number of diseases in the world have been developed. The fact that he developed staining methods whose validity is beyond doubt today attests for the man’s genius as well as placing him on the pedestal as one of the greatest scientists of the modern age. His work not only influenced the scientists of his age but has also come to heavily influence that of modern scientists in his field of study. Works Cited Elliott, Robert L. "Combination Cancer Immunotherapy "Expanding Paul Ehrlichs Magic Bullet Concept"." Surgical oncology 21.1 (2012): 53-5. Prull, Cay-Rudiger. "Part of a Scientific Master Plan? Paul Ehrlich and the Origins of His Receptor Concept." Medical History (pre-2012) 47.3 (2003): 332-56. Raju, Tonse N. K. "The Nobel Chronicles." The Lancet 352.9128 (1998): 661. Schwartz, Robert S. "Paul Ehrlichs Magic Bullets." The New England journal of medicine 350.11 (2004): 1079-80. Schwartz, Robert S. "Paul Ehrlichs Receptor Immunology: The Magnificent Obsession." The New England journal of medicine 346.11 (2002): 870. Sepkowitz, Kent A. "One Hundred Years of Salvarsan." The New England journal of medicine 365.4 (2011): 291-3. Shukla, Shyama K., et al. "Cancer Chemotherapia Specifica Ninety Years After Paul Ehrlich." Chemotherapy 53.5 (2007): 309-12. Soderqvist, Thomas. "Paul Ehrlichs Receptor Immunology: The Magnificent Obsession." Bulletin of the history of medicine 77.2 (2003): 449. Sörgel, F. "The Return of Ehrlichs Therapia Magna Sterilisans and Other Ehrlich Concepts?" Chemotherapy 50.1 (2004): 6-10. Stehr, Frederick W. "A TALE OF TWO SPECIES." Bioscience 55.5 (2005): 451-2. Read More