Abstract
This study, preliminary to a series of investigations in tuberculosis immunology, represents an attempt to prepare from tuberculin an active principle which may be of value in the early diagnosis of tuberculosis, particularly in connection with a wider range of specificity for the bovine type of tubercle bacillus; secondly, it is concerned with the sensitizing properties of these derivatives.
Up to the present time no substance has been isolated or prepared from tuberculin such that it will sensitize the animal body to subsequent injections of the the same material, or to its native unaltered tuberculin. The requisite for atypical skin reaction with tuberculin is an infection with tuberculosis. Believing that the specific substance which produces a local tuberculin susceptibility is present in the tubercle bacillus and in tuberculin and is the same element in either case, I have investigated certain derivatives with a view to identify a possible antigenic “nucleus”. The failure of tuberculin to develop susceptibility in the sense of a true antibody phenomenon may well be due to technical factors and to conditions related to absorption and dissemination of the material in question. Pharmacologic principles have given abundant evidence of the important rule played by solubility, diffusibility and penetration of substances used in local and general therapy. These fundamental principles are the same for any biologic reaction between tissues and the substances injected, be these drugs, tuberculins, or proteins in general.
Landsteiner and his collaborators demonstrated some years ago the relation between serologic specificity and chemical structure of antigens. The point of departure in the present series of experiments centered on the properties of modified antigens and the possibility of extending the range of specificity through certain chemical alterations of the protein or non-protein substances in tuberculin.
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