NON-PROTEIN ANTIGENS 167 



NON-PROTEIN ANTIGENS 



Amono- the many aeeouiits of what the autliors interpret as the 

 successful production of specific antibodies as a reaction to non-pro- 

 tein antigens, are the following: 



Ford ** found that rabbits can be immunized to extracts of Aman- 

 ita phalloides, and that the serum of such rabbits will neutralize five 

 to ei^-lit times the lethal dose for guinea-pi«>'s. and is anti-hemolytic 

 for tlie hemolysin of amanita when diluted to 1-1000. As he and 

 Abel " had found this hemolytic poison of Amanita to be a glucoside, 

 this observation is to be interpreted as a successful production of an 

 antibody for a non-protein poison, a glucoside. This work was fur- 

 ther 'supported by successfully immunizing rabbits to extracts of 

 Rhiis toxicodendron, and finding that their serum in doses of 1 cc. 

 will protect guinea-pigs from 5-6 lethal doses of the poison, which 

 was found by Acree and Syme ^ to be a glucoside. Subsequent work 

 by the same author confirms the main point, showing that an active 

 hemolysin can be obtained free from demonstrable protein, and that 

 immunization with this protein-free hemolj'sin will result in stronglj' 

 active (1-1000) antihemolytic serum.^ 



Ajiother. non-hemolytic poison from Amanita, which Ford desig- 

 nates as Amanita toxin, was found to contain neither protein nor 

 glucoside, and no antitoxic serum or definite artificial immunity 

 can be obtained for it. The antihemolysin unites with the hemoly- 

 sin in simple multiple proportions. ^° 



Jaeoby believed that he had obtained the phytotoxin ricin free from 

 protein, in which case the well-known and active antiricin must rep- 

 resent an antibody for a non-protein antigen. However, the work 

 of Osborne, iMendel and Harris ^^ has shown that ricin is, in all 

 probability, an albumin, and this, for the present at least, places ricin 

 with the protein antigens. 



The work of Ford is, in our estimation, the strongest evidence yet 

 presented as to the possibility of non-protein antigens. The newer 

 developments in immunological research, moreover, make it seem 

 entirely plausible that a complex glucoside, which can be hydroh'zed 

 by enzymes, can act as an antigen. If we consider the evidence that 

 immunity consists in the development of a special power to hydro- 

 lyze foreign substances, when these substances are of such a nature 

 as to stimulate the cells to activity, and that Abderhalden and others 

 have found evidence that specific enzymatic properties appear in 

 the blood of animals injected with carbohydrates and fats, it seems 



c.Tour. Tnfec. Dis., 1907 (4), 541. 

 T Jour. Biol. Chem., 1907 (2), 273. 

 8. Jour. Biol. Chem.. 1007 (2), 547. 



9 Jour. Pharmacol.. 1910 (2), 145. 



10 Jour. Pharmacol., 191.3 (4), 235. 



11 Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1905 (14), 259. 



