Penicillin "The Wonder
Drug"
When discussing the antibiotic breakthrough of
penicillin, the name which is most often associated with its
discovery tends to be Alexander Fleming.
While this is not completely false, there are many other
factors as well as persons which aided in uncovering
penicillin’s
full potential in human uses.
Penicillin was not created overnight.
In fact, over a decade had passed from the time that
Alexander Fleming first noticed the seemingly odd culture of
gram-positive bacteria in 1928 to the first human test in 1941.
As there are many different accounts and versions of the
penicillin story, some of the details may differ.
However, one piece of information which stays constant is
that Alexander Fleming was not alone in creating the wonder drug,
penicillin.
I have found the following sites to be very thorough
in describing the discovery, production, and uses of
penicillin.
I have included a summary of the general information
regarding penicillin, for a more in depth description please visit
these other sites.
Tom Volk - Mycology - University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
George Wong - Botany - Hawaii
The Discovery:
The story which most people are familiar with entails Alexander
Fleming accidently leaving a culture dish of
Staphylococcus aureus
bacteria uncovered for a number of days.
When returning to the bacteria, Fleming noticed mold had
begun to grow as well.
He incorrectly names named the fungus
Penicillium rubra.
(Later it was re-named by Charles Thom as
Penicillium notatum
which was found to be the same species as
Penicillium chrysogenum).
What made this fungus growth interesting was that the bacteria
ceased to exist in the area near it.
Below is a quote from Alexander Fleming which was referenced
in Judith Kaye’s book,
The Life of
Alexander Fleming.
"On this particular occasion, the mould which
developed appeared to be dissolving the bacteria.
That was very unusual, so instead of casting out the
contaminated culture with appropriate language, I made some
investigations and the more I investigated it the more interesting
it became” (Fleming). |
Now, you may be wondering what a fungus
prohibiting the growth of bacteria has to do with saving people’s
lives. It may surprise you to
learn that most deaths prior to the use of penicillin were due to
bacterial infections, not bleeding to death or other occurrences.
Fleming recognized that inhibiting the growth of bacteria
could potentially be used to lessen the number of bacterial related
deaths.
This is where one must decide if Fleming should
be credited for the discovery of penicillin.
Is this initial, chance production of a mold which prohibits
the growth of some bacteria enough to give Fleming credit for the
miracle drug penicillin?
Most people agree that Fleming should be credited merely for
realizing that something odd did in fact occur.
Had Fleming thrown the culture out and not recognized the
importance of it, the production of penicillin would have been
greatly delayed.
However, it was later scientists which revealed the human uses of
the mold in the form of antibiotics.
Over ten years later, in 1939,
Oxford
University scientists
(Ernst Chain and Howard Florey) were
able to reproduce the mold which was seen on Fleming’s
contaminated culture and use it in mice to treat infections.
In 1941 the first human trial took place.
The man who was being treated died due to a lack of
penicillin. |
The arrival of World War II sparked interest in
the new antibiotic, and there was search to find a source which
could provide a sufficient amount of penicillin. Interestingly,
there was a woman hired for the sole purpose of finding different
molds with hopes of finding a high penicillin concentration.
Some accounts say that the final source was moldy liquor; others
say it was due to a melon which was brought to
the scientists.
Whatever the
source, this new abundance of penicillin combined with Louis
Pasteur’s Germ Theory of Disease (infectious diseases are caused by
germs) greatly decreased the number of deaths due to bacterial
infections in WWII and continues to be used today.
In 1945 Alexander Fleming, Ernst Chain, and Howard Florey received
the Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine for their work with the
fungus Penicillium chrysogenum and the benefits yielded to
mankind.
How Does It Work?
Penicillin works on
gram-positive bacteria. These
bacteria contain a cell wall made of peptidoglycan, and it is this
cell wall which penicillin reacts with to weaken the bacteria and
ultimately destroy it. |
The Future of
Penicillin:
As you are probably
aware, the effects of penicillin are not as great as they once were.
This is due to a number of
factors which are all summed up in penicillin resistance.
In other words, the bacteria
are becoming immune to the effects of penicillin.
This is brought on by many
things which all are linked back to good ol’ Charles Darwin and his
theory on selection of the fittest.
When patients are
given penicillin antibiotics and stop taking the medication after
“feeling better”, there are some bacteria which survive the initial
dosage and live on to reproduce other bacteria with the same traits.
Other people feel that penicillin is too readily prescribed,
and this allows for more bacteria to become immune to it. Because of the
bacterial resistance, scientists are continually looking for new
sources for antibiotics as well as changing the old chemical
structures.
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