• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Science / How Did Antibodies Help Paul Ehrlich Discover His Magic Bullets and Develop His Side Chain Theory?

How Did Antibodies Help Paul Ehrlich Discover His Magic Bullets and Develop His Side Chain Theory?

July 24, 2020 by Karen Hill

In 1890, another German researcher Emil von Behring, discovered that the blood of animals infected with different diseases contained chemicals that attacked the disease cells.

He called these chemicals antibodies and found that they often provided immunity, or lifetime protection, against a disease after the first attack.

Paul Ehrlich realized that this was how his dyes worked, the dyes only colored certain cells, and the antibodies attacked only certain kinds of cells without harming other tissue. He started working with Behring to find how antibodies work and if they could somehow be produced outside the body.

Ehrlich discovered that foreign bodies, like bacteria or poisons, contain protein molecules he called antigens.

When the human body senses that an antigen is present, it makes antibodies to make the substance harmless. Ehrlich called the battle between the two substances an immune response and wondered if he could make an organism produce antibodies by deliberately infecting animals with certain germs.

Behring and Ehrlich infected some horses with the bacteria that cause diphtheria, a very contagious, often fatal, respiratory disease that usually attacks children. Blood was then taken from the horses, and the antibodies were concentrated into an antitoxin.

An antitoxin is a medicine that contains antibodies to neutralize the toxic, or poisonous, effect of bacteria. This antitoxin medicine could be injected into humans to create immunity to the disease without contracting the disease first.

Ehrlich later explained exactly how antibodies work in his side chain theory.

He said that antibodies grew many “arms,” which he called receptors, to grab the foreign bodies. The structures of the antigen in the foreign body and the antibody receptors fit together like a lock and key.

This is how the antibodies destroy bacteria without harming surrounding tissue. Sometimes the receptors break off from the antibodies and attack foreign bodies by themselves.

Ehrlich had found his “magic bullets.”

Ehrlich once caught tuberculosis while studying the bacterium that causes the disease. He had to spend two years in the warm, dry air of Egypt to recover.

Related Facts

  • Where do Germs, Bacteria, and Viruses come from and How do they make us sick?
  • Who Was Paul Ehrlich and Why Is Paul Ehrlich Considered the Founder of Modern Hematology?
  • Who Discovered Antibiotics and How do Antibiotics kill infectious organisms without harming the human host?
  • How Did Paul Ehrlich Create the First Synthetic Antibiotic Drug and Who Coined the Term Chemotherapy?
  • Where does Lyme Disease come from and What is the best way to avoid Lyme Disease?
  • How did scientists develop the Salk vaccine for polio in the 1950s?

Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « How Did an Apple Falling From a Tree Inspire Isaac Newton To Formulate His Law of Universal Gravitation?
Next Post: How Did Paul Ehrlich Create the First Synthetic Antibiotic Drug and Who Coined the Term Chemotherapy? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy