Ehrlich's Theory of Immunity

Ehrlich's theory of immunity

Ehrlich's theory of the immune response was developed by Paul Ehrlich in the 1940s and became one of the most influential discoveries in immunology. Ehrlich's theory suggests that the body's immune response to an infectious agent occurs through the activation of lymphocytes, which recognize and destroy infected cells.

The main provisions of Ehrlich's theory of immunity include:

  1. Lymphocytes are the main cells involved in the immune response. They recognize foreign antigens and produce antibodies that bind to them and destroy them.
  2. Antigens are substances that trigger an immune response. They can be either external (for example, bacteria or viruses) or internal (for example, cell breakdown products).
  3. The immune response begins with the activation of lymphocytes by antigens. This process involves the formation of antibodies, which then bind to antigens and destroy them.


Ehrlich's (side chain theory, r.E.) is as follows. More than 500 antigens are present in developing tumors. This amount is related to the size and nature of the antigens found inside the malignant cell. Therefore, it is important to recognize cancer cells as containing a certain amount of antibodies (cellular marker proteins). To do this, various procedures and tests are performed that can be used in combination with traditional cancer treatment. Based on modern methods for analyzing specific proteins, numerous diagnostic reagents have been developed to identify a larger number of genetic changes associated with cancer. Their results make it possible to make predictions regarding patient survival and predict the outcome of the disease.

P.E. in his theory focused not so much on the body’s immune reactions to tumor cells, but on the very origin of tumors. He believed that cancer is a cancerous disease with all the clinical and morphological signs of a malignant neoplasm.