During World War I (WWI), infectious diseases including tetanus were among the most important causes of death. Even though its efficacy was somewhat controversial before the war, tetanus antiserum played a key role in reducing the mortality of this disease. A vial of tetanus antiserum dating back from WWI, left behind on the French battlefield by the US Army, was borrowed from a private collection and opened. The serum contained within was characterized by orthogonal biochemical techniques to determine if any neutralizing IgGs could remain after 100 years of storage. In vitro analysis by Size Exclusion Chromatography and Serum Protein Electrophoresis suggested the presence of residual IgG. In spite of our hopes, these IgGs were not able to protect mice against tetanus toxin challenge in a neutralizing assay. Even though our results indicate the presence of remaining IgGs inside the serum, they were functionally disabled. These results show that obscurity alone is insufficient to protect IgGs from degradation over very long periods of time at room temperature. HIGHLIGHTS: Tetanus antiserum found its place in the therapeutic arsenal during World War I A century-old vial of tetanus antiserum was opened for biochemical and in vivo characterization Biochemical assays revealed the presence of proteins having all the characteristics of IgGs The serum was unable to protect mice against toxinic challenge.

中文翻译：

---

第一次世界大战抗破伤风血清的历史，广泛的表征和挑战：令人兴奋的残留物和欺骗的希望：百岁老人IgG失去了中和能力。

第一次世界大战期间，包括破伤风在内的传染病是最重要的死亡原因之一。尽管战前破伤风的功效尚存争议，但破伤风抗血清在降低该病死亡率方面起着关键作用。从私人收藏中借来了一瓶可追溯到第一次世界大战的破伤风抗血清，被美国军队遗留在法国战场上。通过正交生化技术表征其中包含的血清，以确定在储存100年后是否还会残留任何中和IgG。通过尺寸排阻色谱法和血清蛋白电泳进行的体外分析表明存在残留的IgG。尽管有我们的希望，但这些IgG不能在中和试验中保护小鼠免受破伤风毒素的攻击。即使我们的结果表明血清中仍存在残留的IgG，但它们在功能上却被禁用。这些结果表明，仅模糊性不足以保护IgG在室温下长时间不降解。亮点：破伤风抗血清在一次世界大战IA破伤风抗血清中的治疗药库中发现了其位置，可用于生化和体内表征生化测定显示存在具有IgG所有特征的蛋白质血清无法保护小鼠对抗毒素挑战。