Antibodies & Penicillin

Antibodies & Penicillin

1. Paul Ehrlich

   • 1889 - He wanted to find chemicals that could act as synthetic antibodies.
   • He discovered dyes that could kill malaria and sleeping sickness germs.
     • 1905 - spirochete bacterium that caused STD syphilis was identified.
       • Arsenic & Mercury had been used with some success to cure syphilis but both are poisonous.
         • He researched the arsenic compound that was a magic bullet for syphilis.
           • They wanted to target the spirochetes without poisoning the rest of the body.
             • They tried over 600 compounds but none worked.
               • In 1909, Sahachiro Hata joined the team.
                 • He rechecked teh results and found that compound number 606 appeared to work.
                   • 1911 - It was used on a human.

2. Antibodies were discovered as a natural defence mechanism against germs.

   • They knew that antibodies one attacked specific microbes so they were called magic bullets.

3. Alexander Fleming

   • He saw lots of soldiers die of septic wounds when working in a hospital in WW1.
     • He identified the antiseptic substance in tears, lysozyme in 1922.
       • It only worked on some germs.
       • 1928 - he came to clean up old culture which he was groowing staphylococci on for experiments.
         • He fungal spore had contaminated one.
           • Around it the colonies of staphylococci.
             • It was identified as Penicillium notatum - Penicillin.

4. Gerhard Domagk

   • 1932 - found that red dye, Prontosil stopped the streptococcus microbe from multiplying in mice.
     • It caused fatal blood poisoning that could be contracted from minor wounds.
     • His daughter pricked herself on a needle and caught the disease.
       • He gave her a dose of Prontosil and she recovered.
         • The active ingredient was a sulphonamide and so a group of drugs followed.
           • Negative side effects were discovered later as they damage the liver and kidney.
         • It turned her bright red though!

5. Florey and Chain

   • Penicillin needed purifying
     • Chain devised the freeze-drying technique.
       • They knew they need to grow lots of it for WW2
         • British chemical firms were too busy making explosives.
           • He went to America who joined the war in 1941.
             • By 1944, mass production was sufficient for the military medics.
               • They all got nobel prizes in 1945.