Pricing
Immunology
Since then, several important discoveries have launched a renaissance of research into the field of immunology, and many episodes based on the mechanisms of cause and effect were brilliantly documented.
Abstract
gione et contagiosis morbis, published in 1610, that “an infection is the same in both the carrier and newly infected” and postulated the existence of “imperceptible” germs. Since then, several important discoveries have launched a renaissance of research into the field of immunology. Experimental immunology began in 1798 with Jenner [237], Pasteur developed killed and attenuated vaccines, and Miescher later discovered DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) [33]. In 1875 Cantani Sr stated that the cause of diabetes mellitus was to be sought in a missing ferment which in the healthy metabolized glucose. He also demonstrated that dehydration should be cured by fluid rehydration. In 1890, Ehrlich expressed the concept of autoimmunity as horror autotoxicus [137], amply skimming the etiopathogenetic mechanisms. At the turn of the century, von Pirquet coined the term “allergy” from “allos” and “ergos” (meaning altered reaction) [611] and therefore included the development of protective immunity [33], coupled by Coca and Cooke in 1923 with the term “atopy,” from “atopos” (meaning out of place and thus abnormal) [88]; thus many episodes based on the mechanisms of cause and effect were brilliantly documented [33]. In 1921, Prausnitz and Küstner demonstrated the presence of “reagins” in the serum of allergic patients [436]; in the same year a “Textbook of Immunology” was first published in Italy [75]. In 1966, the Ishizakas attributed a scientific meaning to reagins by identifying IgE as the carrier of reaginic activity in the sera of hay fever sufferers [228]: the first case of immunodeficiency (ID) was reported in 1952 (Chap. 22).