The measurement of the combining power of diphtheria toxin and toxoid with anti-toxin in relation to their antigenic efficacy / by A.T. Glenny, C.G. Pope, and Hilda Waddington.

  • Glenny, A. T.
Date:
[1925?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The measurement of the combining power of diphtheria toxin and toxoid with anti-toxin in relation to their antigenic efficacy / by A.T. Glenny, C.G. Pope, and Hilda Waddington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    were enunciated certain advances have been made in methods of testing bringing to light new relationships. The intracntaneous method of testing has given a new measure of combining power differing slightly from those measures determined by subcutaneous methods. The recent establishment of the flocculation test (Eamon 1922, 1923 and 1924) gives us another new and important method of measuring the strength of a toxin. This will at once be evident when we state that some toxins have given an M.L.D. and L+ value so low that without some other indication of utility no serologist would have used them for the immunisation of horses in the past and yet they proved to have a high value by the Eamon flocculation test and produced, when injected into horses, high grade antitoxic serum. It is probable on the evidence we have now that we, and probably the staffs of almost every other serum-making laboratory in the world, have discarded and destroyed in the past large quantities of toxin that appeared at the time of preparation of low potency according to M.L.D. and L-h determinations, which however would have shown high flocculating value and would have produced good antitoxin in horses. We have known for many years past that toxin showing a high value by animal tests made soon after preparation may after the passage of a considerable time or after treatment with formalde¬ hyde appear to have become much weaker or even useless according to animal tests and yet, as we show later in this paper, he of great antigenic value. The importance of a clear understanding of the relationships between toxin and toxoid content and antigenic value has been increased by the widespread use for active immunisation against diphtheria of mixtures of toxin and antitoxin (Y. Behring 1913, Bark 1913), toxoid antitoxin (Glenny and Hopkins 1923) and toxoid only (Glenny and Siidinersen 1921, Glenny and Hopkins 1923, Park 1923, Eamon 1924, and Glenny, Hopkins and Pope 1924). A complete knowledge of diphtheria toxin will naturally aid future study of other toxins. Already in these laboratories the application of knowledge gained from our continual study of diphtheria toxin has enabled us to provide a mixture of tetanus toxin and antitoxin (Buxton and Glenny 1921) which gives complete protection in horses and other animals against the subsequent injection of actively, growing tetanus cultures, and to prepare similar mixtures which give complete protection against the ordinary ‘'gas gangrene ’’ organisms. None of the three great hypotheses appear to supply a complete explanation of the new knowledge established by the flocculation test. It appears to us that some additional theory is needed to enable us to compare the various measures of combining power, to establish the relationship between these measurements and to account for the high antigenic efficiency of some mixtures which, judged by ordinary animal tests, would he callecl “ over neutralised ” and the comparative
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