[Contribution of immunology to the development of biomedical disciplines]

The paper deals with the history of immunology, the contribution of Nobel prize winners to its progress. It analyzes the achievements of immunology and its contribution to the development of basic biology, biotechnology, medicine, and agriculture. The greatest attention is paid to latest developments which are of high scientific, social, and economic values. These include the interpretation of the structure of immunoglobulins, the mechanisms responsible for the development of immunological responses, as well as hybridome immunobiotechnology, advances in immunogenetics, immunopharmacology, clinical immunology. The Russian developments of priority are the design of new-generation immunotoxins, the clinical use of the new-generation immunomodulators having a controlled structure, such as polyoxidonium, an nontoxic biodegraded synthetic polymer that has an immunostimulating action and detoxifying activity, the discovery of bone marrow bioregulatory molecules, the design of myelopid, their based immunomodulator showing its analgetic opiate-like action, the isolation, purification, synthesis, and characterization of individual myelopeptides (MP-1 to MP-6) which are constituents of myelopid.