id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-010570-ytv7dwr0	Casadevall, Arturo	Return to the Past: The Case for Antibody-Based Therapies in Infectious Diseases	1995-07-17		.txt	text/plain	7469	454	31	In the preantibiotic era, passive antibody administration (serum therapy) was useful for the treatment of many infectious diseases. We briefly review the use of antibody-based therapy in the early 20th century and make the case for reintroducing passive antibody administration for the treatment ofinfectious diseases. Given the diminishing efficacy of existing antimicrobials because of widespread resistance and the difficulties of treating infections in immunosuppressed individuals, the reintroduction of antibody-based therapies is an option that should be given serious consideration. Thus, antibody therapy is still widely used in medicine, but its role in the treatment of infections is limited largely to viral and toxin neutralization and replacement therapy in patients with immunoglobulin deficiencies. In the past, serum therapy was effective against various pathogens despite the fact that immune sera contained only small amounts of specific antibody. Antibody-based therapies have traditionally been most effective in infections where viral and toxin neutralization modifies the course of the disease.	./cache/cord-010570-ytv7dwr0.txt	./txt/cord-010570-ytv7dwr0.txt