Word: bacterium
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Another drug made by a microscopic organism showed signs of becoming important last week. The Journal of the A.M.A. published an editorial on streptothricin, derived from Actinomyces lavendulae, a mold-like bacterium. Features of Streptothricin: 1) besides attacking many Gram-positive (blue-staining) bacteria, it attacks many of the Gram-negative (red-staining) against which penicillin is almost powerless-germs of typhoid, dysentery, etc.; 2) it is safe in therapeutic doses...
...looked down its nose at Bacteriologist Edward Carl Rosenow. But Dr. Rosenow, a stubborn man, has persisted in his peculiar obsession. Says he: there is a strep-polio axis-somehow, in ways no doctor understands, streptococcus plays a malignant part in infantile paralysis. (A coccus is a round bacterium large enough to be seen with an ordinary microscope. A virus is so small it can be seen only with an electron microscope, has some bacteria-like and some protein-like qualities-no one knows for sure whether it is living matter or a chemical...
...Caltech biochemists believe that their discovery is further proof that immunization, whose physiological mechanics has long been a major mystery, is a molecular phenomenon. In the blood stream of animals are large protein molecules called serum globulin. If a bacterium, virus, poison molecule or other "antigen" is near the point where these molecules are formed, the adaptable globulin molecules change their shape and assume structures complementary to those of the invading antigens, so that they can combine with them and neutralize them. After the infection or poisoning has been overcome, these changed globulin molecules remain in the blood as antibodies...
...ordinary washing this neutralization does not occur, and the narcosis amounts virtually to death. The very thin film of soap over each bacterium is thus far more effective in germicidal action than carbolic acid, which must consume the bacteria in order to kill them...
...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...