Constantin Levaditi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1874-08-01)1 August 1874 |
| Died | 5 September 1953(1953-09-05) (aged 79) |
| Nationality |  Romanian |
| Citizenship | Romania France(1908) |
| Alma mater | Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Collège de France |
| Known for | Co-discoverer of thepoliovirus Treatment ofsyphilis bybismuth |
| Spouse | Elena Istrati(1882-1969) |
| Children | Marthe Aglae Dite Ohé Levaditi(1904-1983) Jean Levaditi(1906-1991) - head of the department of histopathology at the Pasteur Institute |
| Parents |
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| Awards | Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh(1928) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | Pasteur Institute - Paris Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy - Bucharest Babeș-Bolyai University - Cluj |
| Doctoral advisor | Victor Babeș |
Constantin Levaditi (1 August 1874 – 5 September 1953) was aRomanian physician andmicrobiologist, a major figure invirology andimmunology, especially in the study ofpoliomyelitis andsyphilis.[1]
Constantin Levaditi was born inGalați. His father, Spyridon Livaditis, of Greek descent (fromMacedonia) was 30 years old and working as a customs officer. His mother, Ioana Ștefănescu, then aged 18 years, was the daughter of peasants fromFocșani. The family name originates from the name of the town ofLivadia, a town 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of Athens[2] (Livaditis meansone who comes from Livadia).[3]: 872 The researcher Pierre Lépine[fr] (1901–1987) reported that Spyridon Livaditis was a member of theFiliki Eteria (Society of Friends), established to organize theGreek Revolution of 1821 against theOttoman Empire under the leadership of PrinceAlexander Ypsilantis.[1]: 1 However, after he had graduated from the Medical School, Constantin altered his surname from Livaditis to Levaditi, which is the alternative spelling of the town (Livadia is alsoLevadia).[2]
Constantin Levaditi had a difficult childhood due to financial problems in the family. In September 1880, he went to the "Cuza Vodă" primary school inGalați, and at the same time started work at the store of his uncle Ștefan Ștefănescu. After the untimely death of his parents in 1883, Constantin’s aunt Efrosini, a member of his father’s family, took custody and he continued his basic education in Bucharest.[1]: 1 He studied atMatei Basarab High School inBucharest and at theCarol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy (1892-1896), where he studied underVictor Babeș. He had the opportunity to become familiar with a medical environment, as his aunt was a laundry worker at the "Brâncovenesc" Hospital in Bucharest. Thus, it was in a medical atmosphere that the future scientist grew up, a good student, gifted in mathematics, a lover of music and the theatre. His medical studies completed, Levaditi, an intern at the hospital, left it to his colleagues to make theward rounds and spent his entire days in the laboratory. This is how he was noticed byVictor Babeș, of whom, in 1897, he became the assistant at the Bacteriological Institute. But he decided to leave for France: in 1898, he landed in Paris. After a passage in the laboratory of the academician Charles Bouchard, at theHôtel-Dieu, he was, in 1899, assistant to Albert Charrin at theCollège de France.[4]: 535
Levaditi continued his postgraduate studies in 1900 and 1901 inFrankfurt withPaul Ehrlich who was considered the father of modernchemotherapy. In the spring of 1901 Levaditi, following the advice of the physician John Kantakouzinos, had the great opportunity to work in theÉlie Metchnikoff Laboratory at thePasteur Institute. In 1902, he completed his doctoral thesis entitledContribution a l’étude des Mastzellen et de la Mastzellen-Leycocytose (Contribution to the study of the mast cells and the mast cells-leucocytes), which was considered a pioneering contribution to haematology. Two years later, in 1904,Emile Roux recognized Levaditi’s abilities and enthusiasm and appointed him director of an independent laboratory at the Pasteur Institute.[1]: 2
He will remain at the Pasteur Institute until retirement age. His choice is made: if he will remain sentimentally attached to his native Romania, it is France that has become his homeland because he has found there not only the means to work, but the intellectual atmosphere and the spiritual climate where he will be able to realize.[4]: 536 He will return to Romania for a short trip in 1903, when he married Helen, the younger daughter of Dr.Constantin Istrati, and in 1920, as a guest lecturer at theUniversity of Cluj.[1]: 2
His enterprising research in immunology led to nomination as Professor in 1924. The American ProfessorSimon Flexner proposed him as director of theRockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, but Levaditi refused politely. Meanwhile, Levaditi taught at many Universities all over the world including London, Madrid, Barcelona, New York and Philadelphia.[1]: 2
The work of C. Levaditi is immense: it extends over more than half a century and it touches on apparently separate domains, but in reality they are united by the logical chain of thought and the development of research. His doctoral dissertation in medicine (1902) made Levaditi a cytologist and an immunologist. From this double training, C. Levaditi will always keep the imprint. Pathological histology will hold a considerable place in all his experimental work, itself oriented towards the solution of immunological problems raised by the various diseases he will study.[4]: 536
Constantin Levaditi dedicated an important part of his research to the study of syphilis, a scourge of the 20th century. From 1907, when he began to investigate venereal disease systematically, he emphasized the importance of studying this wide-spread problem. Levaditi studied the invasive capability ofTreponema pallidum into the target-organs and at the same time described the technique of staining this bacterium (the Levaditi–Manouelian method). He andAuguste-Charles Marie tracedT. pallidum in the brainstem of patients suffering from neurosyphilis, a discovery that confirmed the infiltrating capacity of the organism and opened up new horizons for experimental study in animals. The two pioneer researchers also made the very significant observation that not only the antigens ofT. pallidum, but also extracts of normal tissues from patients who had been infected by syphilis, gave a positive complement fixation reaction. This observation, in combination with the perfection of the serum detection method (the Wasserman Test), contributed to the discovery of autoantibodies and the phenomenon of autoimmunity.[1]: 3
In his studies of syphilis, Levaditi introduced new techniques inserology, and recommendedbismuth in its treatment. Entering World War I as a volunteer, he attained the rank of captain and was detached to serve with the ambulances of la Panne. In this capacity he worked on developing an antitetanus vaccine and studied streptococcus in wounds.[5]
Parallel to these works which would have sufficed to fill and illustrate a lifetime, and which after his retirement from theInstitut Pasteur in 1940, he continued at theAlfred-Fournier Institute, from which he had, when it was created in 1932, received the scientific direction, C. Levaditi carried out with prodigious activity the research on viruses which made him the founder and leader of the French school in the field of ultraviruses.[4]: 538 Levaditi was almost the first and, for a long time, the only person in France to study viruses systematically.[1]: 4 C. Levaditi's works on viruses are numerous and each of them has had an epoch-making history.[4]: 539
Nevertheless, Levaditi’s most significant contributions to mankind are his experiments in poliomyelitis and his catalytic assistance to the clarification of epidemiological factors causing this lethal disease. He cooperated with the AustrianKarl Landsteiner who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 and who was considered a very important modern immunologist, known for the discovery of theABO andRhesus blood group system. Their main areas of cooperation were in the study of scarlet fever and especially of poliomyelitis.[6]: 365
WithKarl Landsteiner, he discovered in 1909 the presence of thepoliovirus intissues other thannervous. He expanded on these studies during a poliomyelitis outbreak inSweden (in 1913),[5] working with Scandinavian researchers (among themKarl Oskar Medin); he was able to isolate the poliovirus on tissueexplant and made precious observations on its characteristics. Together with Carl Kling, he authored the firstmonograph dedicated to the disease,La Poliomyélite aiguë épidémique (1913). His work was the basis for the development of thepolio vaccine byJonas Salk andAlbert Sabin.
Apart from these major subjects, Levaditi touched on all branches of microbiology: tuberculosis, protozooses, immunology, each time with success, always with virtuosity, often as an innovator as in the study of toxoplasmosis or during the discovery ofStreptobacillus moniliformis, agent of murine polyarthritis and epidemic erythema multiforme in humans.[4]: 539 Levaditi’s scientific work has been characterized as ‘bridging the gap between nineteenth century pathology and twentieth century immunology’. Levaditi exercised an influence on both specialties. According to the historianJohn Paul, ‘there was scarcely a microbiological laboratory in Europe that did not boast of at least one worker who had been trained in Paris by Levaditi.’[7]: 290
Levaditi spent almost his entire career at the Pasteur Institute. Though his was the only career beside Landsteiner’s to span the age of Pasteur and modern times, he was not well recognized in the history of poliovirus research. Moreover, unlike Landsteiner, Levaditi never relinquished his interest in poliovirus research after the discovery of the aetiologic agent of poliomyelitis by Landsteiner and Popper in 1908. Levaditi’s name has not been mentioned much in the history of medicine perhaps on account of his modesty. Those who met him described him as an enthusiastic, indefatigable researcher, fully aware of his saving work for mankind, and he always kept a low profile.In the words of his colleagueJohn Paul, ‘it was a pity that he did not live two more years to witness the conquest of poliomyelitis achieved through the science of which he had so long been a champion, namely immunology’. Nevertheless ‘he lived to see his work with Kling and Lépine vindicated, and that was no small triumph.’[7]: 290
In 1919, he returned to Romania. He stayed there for three years to teach at theUniversity of Medicine and Pharmacy of Bucharest before holding, in 1921, at the request of the Romanian government, the chair of microbiology of the Faculty of Medicine ofBabeș-Bolyai University in Cluj. After 1920, Levaditi, assisted by Ștefan S. Nicolau, elaborated at the Department of Bacteriology of the Faculty of Medicine in Cluj projects related to the study of other viruses: herpesviruses, vaccine virus and rabies virus group. The investigations performed from rabies outlined an important chapter of the virological research on: the neurotropic ectodermoses. Levaditi introduced the term “neuroprobasia”, which defines the progression of viruses along the nerve tracts.[8]
Constantin Levaditi was a member of theAcadémie Nationale de Médecine and an honorary member of theRomanian Academy. In 1928, he was awarded theCameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh. Throughout his career, Levaditi published more than 1,200 notes, articles, and monographs.[5]
Bibliographies of monographs and articles by Levaditi are hisTravaux de médecine expérimentale, 1897-1931. Ectodermoses neurotropes, neuroprotozooses, syphilis, chimiothérapie et chimioprévention, phagocytose, immunité, érythème polymorphe, rhumatisme, ergostérol irradié (Paris, 1931); andTitres et travaux. Microbiologie, pathologie humaine et animale, chimiothérapie. 1897-1951 (Paris, 1952).[5]
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