Serums from Flasks?

SCIENCE

So startling was the news that many another scientist was politely incredulous. Antibodies, the disease-fighting substances in the blood, have been made artificially in laboratory flasks for the first time. This achievement was announced last week by Chemists Linus Pauling, Dan Campbell and David Pressman of California Institute of Technology. The three researchers made it clear that their work is still in the realm of biochemistry and that flask-prepared solutions are not yet ready to replace the serums for clinical use now developed from horses and other animals.

The Caltech biochemists think their discovery proves that immunization is a molecular phenomenon. In the blood stream of animals are large protein molecules called serum blobulin. If a bacterium, virus, venom molecule or other "antigen" is near the point where these molecules are formed, the adaptable molecules change their shape and assume structures complementary to those of the antigen, so that they can combine with them and neutralize them. After the infection has been overcome, these changed protein molecules remain in the blood as antibodies, ready to attack any reappearing enemies. Hence immunity.

In their experiments, the researchers induced serum blobulin molecules 1) to "unfold" their structures by treatment with heat or alkalis in the presence of antigens, 2) then to fold up again. The researchers believe that the antigen influences the molecule to assume a modified structure in the flask, just as it would in the blood stream.

Solutions thus treated acquire the various characteristics of a natural blood serum which would be obtained from an animal immunized with the same antigen. The Caltech researchers have already prepared antibodies against a few simple chemical antigens (e.g., methyl blue), and are working toward more complex antigens such as snake venoms and viruses.

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