Everything about Paul Ehrlich totally explained
Paul Ehrlich (
March 14,
1854 –
August 20,
1915) was a
German scientist who won the
1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He is noted for his work in
hematology,
immunology, and
chemotherapy. Ehrlich predicted
autoimmunity calling it "
horror autotoxicus". He coined the term "
chemotherapy" and popularized the concept of a "
magic bullet". He is credited with the first empirical observation of the
blood-brain barrier and the development of the first
antibiotic drug in modern medicine.
Biography
Paul Ehrlich was born into a
Jewish family in
Strehlen, in the
Prussian Province of Silesia (now in
Poland). As a schoolboy and student of medicine he was interested in staining microscopic tissue substances.
In his dissertation at the
University of Leipzig, he picked up the topic again ("
Beiträge zur Theorie und Praxis der histologischen Färbung"). He married Hedwig Pinkus (then aged 19) in
1883. The couple had two daughters named Stephanie and Marianne. After his clinical education and habilitation ("
Das Sauerstoffbedürfnis des Organismus") at the
Charité in
Berlin in 1886 he received a call from
Robert Koch to join the
Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin (1891).
Ehrlich spent two years in
Egypt, recovering from
tuberculosis. Thereafter he worked with his friend
Emil Adolf von Behring on the development of the
diphtheria serum.
These works inspired Ehrlich's famous
side-chain theory (
Seitenkettentheorie) from 1897. This theory explained the effects of
serum and enabled measurement of the amount of
antigen. In 1896 Ehrlich became the director of the newly founded
Institute of Serum Research and Examination (
Institut für Serumforschung und Serumprüfung) in Steglitz (Berlin). In 1899 the institute was moved to
Frankfurt (Main) and extended into the
Royal Institute of Experimental Therapy (
Institut für experimentelle Therapie). Here Ehrlich researched chemotherapy and infectious diseases. In 1904 Ehrlich became honorary professor of the
University of Göttingen.
Ehrlich received the Nobel Prize for Medicine together with
Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in
1908. In 1906 he discovered the structural formula of
atoxyl, a chemical compound which had been shown to be able to treat
sleeping sickness. Following this discovery, he tried to create a less toxic version of the medicament. In
1909 he and his student
Sahachiro Hata developed
Salvarsan, a treatment effective against
syphilis.
Ehrlich died of a
stroke in
Bad Homburg in 1915, aged 61.
"Magic Bullet"
His life is depicted in the movie
The Magic Bullet, which focused on
Salvarsan (arsphenamine, "compound 606"), his cure for
syphilis. His work illuminated the existence of the
blood-brain barrier.
The "
magic bullet" concept comes from the experience of
19th century German chemists with selectively staining tissues for
histological examination, and in particular, selectively staining
bacteria (Ehrlich was an exceptionally gifted histological
chemist, and invented the precursor technique to
Gram staining bacteria). Ehrlich reasoned that if a compound could be made that selectively targeted a
disease causing
organism, then a
toxin for that organism could be delivered along with the agent of selectivity. Hence, a "
magic bullet" would be created that killed only the organism targeted.
A problem with the use of the magic bullet concept as it emerged from its histological roots is that people confused the
dye with the agent of
tissue selectivity and
antibiotic activity.
Prontosil, a sulfa drug whose active component is sulfanilamide, is a classic example of the fact that
color isn't essential to antibiotic activity.
The concept of a "magic bullet" was fully realized with the invention of
monoclonal antibodies.
References and notes
References and further reading
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