135 Years of History and Modernity of the State Institution «i. I. Mechnikov Institute of Microbiology and Immunology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine»

Abstract

The article is devoted to the results of a retrospective study of the historical path of formation and development of scientific research in State Institution «I. I. Mechnikov Institute of Microbiology and Immunology of the NAMS of Ukraine». The Institute as a scientific institution of anti-epidemic profile was founded in May 1886. At the beginning of the last century, the Institute turned into a major scientific and practical center of pre-revolutionary Russia for the fight against infectious diseases. Already in 1913-1914 the Institute produced 6 types of sera and 7 vaccines. In 1920 the Institute was nationalized, became a state institution and received the name of the Bacteriological Institute, and in 1922 – the First Ukrainian Sanitary-Bacteriological Institute. The Institute was the first in the Soviet Union to begin the production of BCG and became one of the pioneers of the introduction of bacteriophage in the treatment and prevention of intestinal infections: dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera. From 1921 to 1940, the Institute produced more than 40 names of various drugs in an amount exceeding the previous 20 years by more than thirty times. In addition, the Institute currently produces the following serum: diphtheria, scarlet fever, dysentery, meningococcal, pneumococcal, streptococcal, staphylococcal, tetanus, botulinum and 4 gangrenous sera. Since the beginning of the war, the Institute has been evacuated first to Stalingrad and then to Chkalov. During the evacuation, the Institute continues to produce bacteriological preparations. From 1941 to 1945 the release of vaccines and serums amounted to 400% of the pre-war level, only in 1942 110 thousand wounded soldiers received serum against gas gangrene, more than 120 thousand soldiers received tetanus serum. After re-evacuation to Kharkiv, the Institute continued to work on the production of vaccines and serums and, starting in 1944, began the production of smallpox detritus, measles serum and typhus vaccine. At that time, in the laboratory of V. S. Derkach, the antibiotic pyocyanin (or sanazine) was studied and a method for its biosynthesis was developed, and together with the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, its new homologues were synthesized. Also in the laboratory after the war, neocide a drug against cancer was created. The problems of epidemiology at the Institute were developed by the outstanding microbiologist V. M. Zhdanov. From 1946 to 1950 V. M. Zhdanov headed the virological laboratory, and since 1948 – the Kharkov Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology named I. I. Mechnikov. In 1950, a laboratory for the production of anti-influenza drugs was organized, and a year later, the study and improvement of dry polytype therapeutic and prophylactic anti-influenza serum began. The collection of mycobacterial phages, collected by Professor L. A. Kosobutsky, Doctor of Medical Sciences, was one of the three largest in the world. At the Institute, on the basis of fish oil, the drug «ektericide» was developed. V. L. Nadtoka became the founder of a new scientific direction for the development and use of antimicrobial preparations of plant origin. Under the leadership of V. L. Nadtoka developed dosage forms of the drug chlorophyllipt, which are introduced into production and clinical practice in Ukraine. Now the Institute is a methodological center for the development of theoretical provisions and practical use of laboratory diagnostic methods, anti-epidemic measures, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, advanced training of bacteriologists, virologists, epidemiologists and other specialists. Currently, on the basis of the Institute, there are a number of divisions of industry-wide importance that coordinate scientific and methodological work in important areas of infection control: the Center for Specific Indication of Biological Pathogenic Agents, the Republican Reference Laboratory of Pathogens of Anaerobic Infections, the Laboratory of New and Little-Studied Infectious Diseases. In general, the staff of the Institute over the years of its existence has developed and introduced into production about 60 different vaccines, sera and other therapeutic and diagnostic immunobiological preparations. The Institute has developed drugs against 21 infections. In addition to immunobiological drugs, the Institute has developed and introduced a number of antimicrobial drugs, among which the most famous are chlorophyllipt, decamethoxin, ektericide, eucavan and others. Keywords: history of science, I.Mechnikov Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, bacteriological preparations, vaccines, serums, bacteriophages, antimicrobial agents, chlorophylipt