Inventors: Sándor Tuboly Sándor (1932–2017), professor of veterinary science. Born in 1932 in Hercegfalva to a family of educators. He completed his studies at the College of Veterinary Medicine, where he received his doctorate in 1955. Since 1976, he had been professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Microbiology at the University of Veterinary Science, later serving as department head until his retirement.
Tamás Szent-Iványi (1920–1991) was a professor of epidemiology from 1950 to 1985. He received his veterinary degree in 1946 and served as head of the Department of Epidemiology from 1976 to 1985. From 1970 to 1975, he worked at the FAO headquarters in Rome. He participated in the planning and implementation of domestic and international epidemic control and eradication campaigns against certain infectious diseases (tuberculosis, brucellosis, leptospirosis, Aujeszky’s disease, enzootic bovine leukosis), primarily in developing countries at the request of the FAO, WHO, and OIE. His research work spanned the fields of immunogenetics, microbiology, and epidemiology. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) elected him a corresponding member in 1973 and a full member in 1979.
(Source: Magyar Állatorvosi Panteon in Hungarian)
Desciption: “A method for preparing a species-specific diagnostic agent for tuberculosis from Mycobacterium strains, preferably Mycobacterium bovis or M. avium, characterized in that the individual protein-polysaccharide complexes are separated by electrophoresis or by adjusting the pH to the isoelectric point of the individual fractions, and from the fraction containing the polysaccharide moiety that yields the desired species-specific tuberculin (or serological) reaction, the protein is removed by breaking the protein-polysaccharide bond, then the pure species-specific polysaccharide is isolated by precipitation or gel filtration and processed into a diagnostic reagent.”
(Source: e-Research database of the National Intellectual Property Office, where the full text of the patent is freely available in Hungarian. http://epub.hpo.hu/e-kutatas/?lang=EN)
Source of the text: HU, Patent description : 158035 : Eljárás fajspecifikus gümőkőr diagnosztikum előállítására / Tuboly Sándor, Szent-Iványi Tamás. Submitted: 1968-05-28. 6 p. : ill. Published: 1970-06-06. 5 demand points
Year: 1968
Interesting: The patent was the result of several years of research, and development continued even after it was patented. The diagnostic agent was presented in 1972 at the World Veterinary Congress held in Mexico City.
“Szent-Iványi and Tuboly (Hungary) reported on a selective tuberculin preparation (Setulin) produced by hydrolysing and electrophoretically fractionating a 6-week-old culture of M. bovis strain AN 5. Common Mycobacterium fractions detected in in vivo and in vitro cross-reactions were eliminated, and a specific glycoprotein fraction was isolated. Cattle infected with typical mycobacteria showed a strongly positive reaction to the avian test, a mostly positive reaction to the mammalian test, but did not react to selective tuberculin. In contrast, individuals infected with M. bovis showed a distinctly positive reaction following the use of Setulin. The combined use of mammalian and selective tuberculin in closed herds revealed the presence of atypical mycobacteria, which can cause confusion when interpreting conventional tuberculin reactions.”
(Source: Beszámoló a Mexico City-i, XIX. Állatorvos-Világkongresszusról. Magyar Állatorvosok Lapja, 1972. 27. 8. p. 458.)
Lajos Dénes, then Deputy Minister, assessed the invention as follows in his series of articles analysing the tuberculosis situation in Hungary:
“We made resolving the long-debated issue of tuberculin one of our top priorities. Instead of the mammalian (mixed) tuberculin used initially, we switched to purified tuberculin in 1975. Since we were unable to resolve the difficulties of domestic production in a short time, we first used German and then Czechoslovakian imported tuberculin. In 1980, Phylaxia succeeded for the first time in producing purified tuberculin from the M. bovis AN-5 strain, which complied with international standards, and in meeting domestic demand with it.
The studies conducted by Tamás Szent-Iványi and Sándor Tuboly with the selective-action Setulin they had developed led to interesting results. Their invention and the conclusions drawn from their analyses of the diagnostic agent’s mechanism of action were of great practical assistance in distinguishing certain allergic reactions from those triggered by pathogenic mycobacteria. I consider it a particular merit that they never attempted to present their invention as a miracle cure, which on the one hand would take the place of tuberculin in tests for tuberculosis, and on the other hand would replace detailed epidemiological analyses and the derivation of correlations in specific cases.”
(Source: Dénes Lajos: A szarvasmarha-gümőkór helyzete Magyarországon : IV. Statisztikák, következtetések, tanulságok. Magyar Állatorvosok Lapja, 1983. 38. 4. p. 200.)
Éva Orbán
