Acute and Chronic Toxicities in Mammal and Subhuman Primates with Inactivated Corynebacterium Suspension

Before studying the potential activity of immunostimulant preparations, it is necessary to examine their actual toxic effects carefully. Although this approach is a very general obligation for any kind of pharmaceutical preparation, it is especially important to enforce this rule for immunostimulants since the potentiation of the host defense system leads to radical transformations of the host itself. Therefore, subtoxic effects and stimulant activities must be clearly separated. The immunostimulant activity of Corynebacterium parvum suspensions was first discovered by Halpern et al. (1963), after the studies done by Prevot and Tardieux (1953) on the pathogen activity of anaerobic corynebacteria.