The Synergic Activity of Staphylococcus Toxin *

Knowledge of the synergic properties of staphylococcus toxin is comparatively recent: in 1933 Dr. E. L. Burky observed in rabbits immunized with staphylococcus toxin a reaction to the broth in which the toxin had been produced. In explanation he suggested that the "growth activities of the staphylococci had separated from the medium some substance which, when attached to the toxin, became antigenic. In brief, a broth haptene was attached to the toxin."" If this were true, it occurred to him that other substances of little or no antigenicity might become antigenic when they were incubated with staphylococcus toxin. With this in mind, Burky' ' injected rabbits with an incubated mixture of lens extract and toxin, and succeeded in demonstrating cutaneous sensitivity, ocular sensitivity, and precipitins for the lens antigen. The combined action of staphylococcus toxin and rabbit muscle gave rise to dermatitis in the rabbit, and pollen extract plus toxin produced precipitins for ragweed extract and a hypersensitive state in the rabbit. Lens extract, rabbit muscle, and ragweed extract without staphylococcus toxin did not exert a comparable effect in the control animals. Burky suggested that similar action of staphylococcus toxin emanating from a staphylococcal infection might explain some cases of endophthalmitis phacoanaphylactica, a condition found in persons sensitive to lens. In testing this hypothesis, Burky and Henton7 successfully employed a mixture of lens extract and staphylococcus toxin in the desensitization of two patients hypersensitive to lens. The treatment changed their cutaneous reaction to lens from positive to negative, while no one of ten patients treated with lens extract alone lost his sensitivity to lens. Loss of ocular sensitivity also was manifested in the patients treated with lens and toxin.