66 PROTEIN THERAPY 



The Antiferment. In the course of studies undertaken several 

 years ago Jobling and Petersen presented evidence that seemed to 

 indicate very strongly that the anti-enzyme (antitrypsin) of the serum 

 consisted of the finely dispersed lipoids which contained unsaturated 

 carbon bonds in their chemical structure. More recent research has in 

 general confirmed the view that the antienzyme is lipotropic and not 

 related to the proteins although it may physically be closely bound to 

 some of these serum constituents. 



In animal experimentation Jobling and Petersen determined that 

 there was an increase in the antiferment after practically every 

 form of shock to which the animal was subjected anaphy lactic, bac- 

 terial, protein, etc. Clinically it had been observed that the anti- 

 ferment was increased in cachexia, during acute febrile diseases, j.n 

 pregnancy, after vaccine injection, serum sickness, etc. 



In the patient injected with vaccines intravenously the fluctua- 

 tion in the antiferment titer were followed by Petersen and the types 

 of reaction are illustrated in the accompanying chart (Fig. 2). 



"The changes in the antiferment of the blood serum are usually well 

 marked and quite uniform in the cases that react favorably to the shock 

 therapy. Chart A illustrates the changes taking place for a three-day 

 period of observation in a case with complete recovery from an acute 

 arthritis following intravenous injection of 60 mg. of a primary proteosa 

 The persistence of the increased antiferment titer may be much less in 

 duration, as shown in the Chart B. This case, K. H., was one of multiple 

 subacute arthritis which did not improve to any marked extent after in- 

 jection of typhoid vaccines, although there was temporary relief. 



"Finally, the cases that show no permanent improvement seldom show 

 any increase in the antiferment, indeed almost always present a decrease 

 in the titer following the shock, as illustrated in the third and fourth 

 charts, C and D." 



Antibodies. With the introduction of modern methods of nonspe- 

 cific therapy immunologists turned naturally to an investigation 

 whether or not the therapeutic effect of the injections might not be 

 due to some alteration in the antibody titer of the serum of the patient. 

 As a matter of fact the effort to increase antibody production by stimu- 

 lating the organism in a variety of ways is by no means a recent 

 subject of experimentation. Thus Solomonsen and Madsen found 

 that if horses were immunized with diphtheria toxin and then in- 

 jected with pilocarpin the titer was much higher than before the 

 pilocarpin injections. Obermeier and Pick, using 5% and 10% pep- 

 tone solution for injection, found that animals sensitized three months 

 previously responded with a marked increase in precipitins after the 

 injections. Dieudonne immunized rabbits with typhoid bacilli and 

 then injected hetol and observed a decided increase in the antibody 

 titer. Similar observations have been recorded for nucleins, for 

 colloidal metals and for paraspecific serum injections. 



