Born on October 2, 1932, in the village of Tsetulya, Yavoriv District, Lviv Oblast, in a family of civil servants. In 1948, he graduated from Yavoriv Secondary School No. 2 with a silver medal and that same year entered the Faculty of Medicine at Lviv State Medical Institute. In September 1949, he was arrested by the KGB and sentenced by a military tribunal as a minor to 10 years of imprisonment in the strict regime camps of Vorkuta, and in August 1954, he was released and rehabilitated. In 1959, he graduated from medical institute with honors and worked for a year as an infectious disease doctor and pathologist at the Bereznegovate Interdistrict Hospital in Mykolaiv Oblast. From 1960 to 1963, he studied in the graduate program at the D.K. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 1964, he defended his candidate's dissertation, and in 1980, his doctoral dissertation. Since 1966, he has been the head of the Department of Microbial Genetics at the D.K. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. On May 18, 1990, he was elected a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and on March 3, 20217, a member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. He is a laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology (1991) and an Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine (2003). He has published 5 books of poetry and painting.
The production of autovaccines is my hobby, as my main scientific work is dedicated to researching various problems in microbial genetics, particularly streptomycetes: genetic transformation of streptomycetes using DNA, construction of genetic maps through strain crossing, whole genome sequencing of streptomycetes, and the study of the structure and function of antibiotics and their biosynthesis regulators (landomycine E, N-methylphenylalanil-dehydrobuthyrine diketopiperazine), obtaining highly active industrial producers of vitamins and antibiotics using genetic selection methods and selling them to companies under a licensing agreement (beta-carotene, polymyxin B) and other issues.
AUTOVACCINE:
Many people suffer from chronic infections caused by opportunistic and pathogenic microorganisms (chronic dermatitis, ozena, scleroma, chronic bronchitis and pneumonia, chronic gonorrhea, chronic dysentery, chronic cystitis and urethritis). Such diseases are most often caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, gonococci, pathogenic intestinal and dysentery bacilli and other microorganisms. Often, doctors are powerless in such cases because the opportunistic microorganisms are resistant to the most effective and popular antibiotics and antiseptics. Unfortunately, doctors often do not pay enough attention to these resistances when prescribing antibiotics to patients. They often prescribe antibiotics without culturing and determining the antibiotic sensitivity of the microorganisms. This contributes to the spread of bacterial resistance to antibiotic drugs. Often, the cause of chronic infections is the reduced immunity of individuals to various pathogens, caused by internal factors of the body and the negative impact of harmful external conditions. In such cases, the most effective solution is to isolate the pathogenic microorganism, prepare an autovaccine from it, and immunize the patient. Today, many different types of vaccines are known: live vaccines, inactivated (killed) vaccines, anatoxins, associated vaccines, particulate vaccines, chemical vaccines, biosynthetic vaccines, vector (recombinant) vaccines, ribosomal vaccines, and fourth-generation vaccines in the development stage (anti-idiotypic and DNA vaccines). But in the case of the aforementioned chronic diseases, autovaccines have proven to be the most effective today. These are generally created for a specific individual and act as immune stimulants, enhancing the phagocytic properties of macrophage cells in particular. They also do not contain ballast substances that cause complications. These autovaccines possess not only immune-stimulating but also desensitizing effects. As a doctor by education and a microbiologist-geneticist by profession, I cannot deny patients the provision of such specialized medical care. If not me, then who? My experience in the production and application of autovaccines is over thirty years. Over the past decade (2015–2024), I have isolated 80 pure cultures of pathogenic microorganisms from patients who visited the D.K. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology of the NASU or came directly to me. These cultures include Haemophilus influenzae (1), Streptococcus pyogenes (1), Candida albicans (2), Escherichia coli (7), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (8), Klebsiella pneumoniae (9), Streptococcus pneumoniae (12), and Staphylococcus aureus (40). Half of the isolated pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus. Most of the sick children and adults I have treated have either been cured or achieved a stable balance between normal health and asymptomatic existence of the microbe. The brain, muscles, heart, and immune system need to be constantly trained in life to successfully overcome various obstacles the organism encounters and to stay in good physical shape. Among the large number of conditionally pathogenic microorganisms, staphylococcus most often infects the body. The vast majority of staphylococci are non-pathogenic and are considered a normal microflora of the skin and mucous membranes of humans. They live in the air, soil, and on household items. Among the 14 species of staphylococcus that colonize the human body, 11 are harmless, and only 3 can cause various diseases. Examples of the resulting diseases include cystitis and urethritis (saprophytic staphylococcus). These strains can affect heart valves, infect implants and prostheses (epidermal staphylococcus), cause purulent infections, furunculosis, carbunculosis, abscesses, pneumonia, sepsis, toxic shock (golden staphylococcus). For staphylococcal immunization of people today, doctors often use specific immunoglobulins and anatoxins, however, these have shown limited effectiveness. Unfortunately, I also have an unpleasant memory of using staphylococcal immunoglobulins. My son, during his birth at the obstetrics and gynecology clinic of LDMU in 1970, contracted staphylococcus and developed an abscess in the elbow joint area. I obtained staphylococcal gamma globulin in ampoules from the Kyiv Institute of Hematology and Transfusionology and administered it intramuscularly to the sick child. Seven days later, the child had an acute reaction to the foreign protein in the form of anaphylactic shock. I am therefore convinced that the treatment of staphylococcal infections through autovaccination is the most effective option. To prepare an autovaccine, it is necessary to isolate the pathogen from the patient, culture it on an appropriate agar medium, and from a young (24-hour) culture, prepare a suspension of bacteria of the appropriate density (100 million cells per 1 ml) in sterile physiological saline solution. The live bacteria should then be slowly killed by heating the suspension at 60°C for 60 minutes. The cooled autovaccine should be tested for sterility (presence of live bacteria), placed in sterile vials with sealed rubber stoppers or in sterile glass ampoules with subsequent sealing over a flame, and stored in a refrigerator at 4°C. The vaccination course scheme includes subcutaneous administration of the autovaccine using a sterile one-milliliter syringe in doses ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 ml to various body areas (outer part of the shoulder, under the shoulder blade, and upper outer part of the thigh) with two- or three-day intervals. Repeated administration of the autovaccine in different body areas involves the participation of many regional lymph nodes in the production of immunity, leading to a high concentration of antibodies. At the site of subcutaneous administration of the autovaccine, swelling, redness, and slight tenderness of the skin are observed (typical inflammation: tumor, rubor, calor, dolor), which resolve on their own within a day. In addition to the local reaction, there is also a general reaction of the body in the form of an increased body temperature of 37-39°C and mild aches throughout the body, which also pass quickly. To consolidate immunity and the production of a high concentration of antibodies by the body 40 days after the completion of the vaccination course (administration of 1.0 ml of the vaccine), it is recommended to perform revaccination - three injections of the latter in a medium dose (0.5 ml). After such a vaccination course, recovery of the patient (disappearance of disease symptoms) and desensitization of the body (loss of increased sensitivity to the pathogen) usually occur. The application of autovaccines in a significantly smaller portion of patients does not result in a positive effect due to a weakened immune system caused by various pathological conditions (genetic, autoimmune, oncological, and hormonal diseases), medications, drugs, alcohol, toxic chemicals, a sedentary lifestyle, stress, obesity, and poor nutrition. To boost immunity, various immunostimulants officially recommended by the Ministry of Health can be used. My experience with the successful application of autovaccines includes hundreds of patients of various ages, with no observed cases of vaccination complications. The production of autovaccines is my hobby, as my main scientific work is dedicated to researching various problems in microbial genetics, particularly streptomycetes: genetic transformation of streptomycetes using DNA, construction of genetic maps through strain crossing, whole genome sequencing of streptomycetes, and the study of the structure and function of antibiotics and their biosynthesis regulators (landomycine E, N-methylphenylalanil-dehydrobuthyrine diketopiperazine), obtaining highly active industrial producers of vitamins and antibiotics using genetic selection methods and selling them to companies under a licensing agreement (beta-carotene, polymyxin B) and other issues. Besides science, my second creative calling is poetry and prose. I am a member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine, having published 5 books containing poems and prose. I explore various topics, including my life,s path, scientific activities, the popularization of science, the political situation in Ukraine, and faith in its better future. I can offer my esteemed listeners the translation of some quatrains – four-line poems- into English by my grandson Danylo. Matselyukh Bohdan Pavlovych, Head of the microbiology genetics laboratory at the D.K. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of NASU, Member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine