Dr Sambhu Nath De: Unsung hero

Abstract

De′s discovery of cholera toxin was almost three quarters of a century after Robert Koch first cultured Vibrio cholerae (known as comma bacillus at that time) in Calcutta and 105 years after the microscopic observation of the causative agent of cholera by an Italian anatomist Filippo Pacini and the classic epidemiologic studies of John Snow, a British physician describing the waterborne nature of the disease. Following the course of the disease, De contended that the causative agent affects the permeability of the intestinal epithelium leading him to perform work at that interface using the now famous rabbit ileal loop model [2] . Not only was De able to replicate the disease with the causative organism introduced in the ileal loops of the rabbit but also was able to replicate the disease with bacteria-free culture filtrate of V. cholerae clearly showing that the exotoxin nature of cholera toxin.