Physiochemical and immunological studies on subunits of antibody molecules.

Since the beginning of this century, a large amount of evidence has accumulated indicating that antibody can be partially digested by enzymes without loss of activity. As will be indicated in the following review, much of this work was undertaken primarily to eliminate the occurrence of serum sickness, a syndrome due to the intravascular interaction between passively administered heterologous antitoxic antisera and the antibodies formed to these antisera in the recipient. Enzymatic treatment of antitoxins was used in an attempt to reduce their antigenicity and hence their ability to elicit an immune responce, with its possibly disastrous sequelae. The early work on enzymatic degradation of antibodies was conducted almost exclusively with antitoxins produced in the horse, since this species has been the favoured source of antisera for clinical use