[Robert Koch was right. Towards a new interpretation of tuberculin therapy].
At the centenary of Robert Koch's Nobel Prize award, tuberculosis treatment with tuberculin, which was announced in Berlin in 1890, is still considered a failure. Nevertheless, there is now sufficient information supporting the idea that tuberculin therapy was widely used until the second half of the twentieth century; thus, the impact of this treatment should be studied and related to the decrease in tuberculosis-related mortality recorded in that period. Moreover, tuberculin therapy has inspired at least two new immunotherapies; these, however, were directed toward precisely the opposite effect: suppression of the Koch phenomenon. Thus, inoculation of Mycobacterium vaccae polarizes the immune response towards the Th1 type; and inoculation of RUTI avoids local immunodepression after short-term chemotherapy without inducing toxicity. For this reason, Robert Koch's work on antituberculosis therapy should be reread and proper recognition given to his contribution in this field.
Cardona
Pere J
PJ
Unidad de Tuberculosis Experimental, Servicio de Microbiología, Fundació Institut per a la Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, España. pcardona@ns.hugtip.scs.es
D000047:Academies and Institutes / Q000266:history; D001604:Berlin; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000266:history*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000276:immunology*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014373:Tuberculin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000266:history* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000628:therapy
D014373:Tuberculin