Editorial

 

Author: D. Terziivanov, Editor-in-Chief of JCM

 

Paul Ehrlich, the founder of chemotherapy (a term coined by himself), came to the insight of the „magic bullet“ while working in the field of autoimmunity and immunotherapy. Analyzing the unusually high selectivity of antibodies to their corresponding antigen, Ehrlich proposed interpretation of the immunological process whereby the antigen has two different from each other groups or domains – haptophor and toxophil, while mammalian cells have „lateral chains“ containing receptors. These receptors are themselves groups or domains complementary to the haptophors, so that they grip and fix them like an anchor. According to Ehrlich, such a system is not adversely affecting the cells, but as a result of such coupling, the toxophil group comes closer to the cell and can harm it. Ehrlich considered that the normal function of cell receptors is expressed by their involvement in fixing molecules of nutrients and cellular respiration (after Albert, E., 1971)1. Ehrlich applied this hypothesis to explain the mechanism of action of chemical molecules that have chemotherapeutic properties, such as Salvarsan. Moreover, Ehrlich first observed, described and gave a scientific explanation, based on laboratory experiments, of the phenomenon known then as a resistance to drugs, which nowadays is defined as drug resistance. (...)