Transcript Magic Bullets - The British Empire

Magic Bullets
Prevention is better than Cure
Unless you have got the Disease!
•Prevention
•Cause
•Cure
Behring’s Biological Bullets
• Part of Koch’s research team
• He recognised that animals try to produce
anti-bodies to fight any invading bacteria
• He successfully identified the anti-bodies
that fought Diphtheria
– Removed the clotting agents
– Injected it into infected people
– The anti-bodies killed the germs but nothing
else
• Magic Bullet
Salvarsan 606
• Paul Ehrlich
– Part of Koch’s staining team
– Had worked with Behring
• He wanted to create a chemical version of the
Behring’s anti-bodies
– Chemicals which killed the germs but nothing else
• Using Dyes to kill the Syphilis Bacteria
– These were not harmful enough to the germs
– He switched to Arsenic compounds
– After 605 attempts at varying the dosage they
still had no luck
– Compound 606 worked
• They nearly missed it! Only when Hata retested it
Prontosil
• Gerhardt Domagk
– Experimented with Dyes
to fight Blood Poisoning
• Some reasonable success using mice
• His daughter accidentally chased her Guinea Pig
into his research room and infected herself with
some contaminated blood
• Domagk was forced to try out his discovery
– Luckily it worked
• The second chemical bullet had been discovered
Industrialising Production
of the Magic Bullets
• How did Prontosil work
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What was the active ingredient of Prontosil
Electron Microscope invented 1931
Sulphanomide
Extracted from Coal Tar
• Sulphanomides adapted by Drug
Companies
– Scarlet fever, meningitis, Gonorrhoea,
Pneumonia
• See graph page 155 for effectiveness of
sulphanomides
Penicillin –
The Guided Missile
• Most infections caused by
the powerful germs:
– Staphylococci
– Streptococci
• No drugs effectively killed
these germs
• Infections would spread
across the whole body
– Death likely
Alexander Fleming’s
Accidental Discovery
• In 1928, Fleming was researching the Staphylococci
germ
• He had lots of Culture plates lying around (in the
sink)
• He went on holiday and left the window ajar
• On his return and before he cleaned up, he noticed
that the Staphylococci on one of the plates had been
killed off
• He immediately rushed to see what was responsible
• A small fungus called Penicillium had blown through
the window
• He wrote a paper explaining what had happened but
he could not figure out a way of growing the fungus
Mass Producing Penicillin
• Howard Florey and Ernst Chain
– Read Fleming’s paper with interest
• World War II broke out in 1939
– Government grants to discover a way of
growing Penicillium
• The Milk Bottle Process
– They needed as much surface area as
possible to grow the mould
– Slowly gathered a few grams of penicillin
Does it work?
• Testing process of Penicillin
– On mice
• 8 mice were injected with Staphylococci
• 4 were given Penicillin, 4 were not
• Which 4 died?
– On a policeman in 1941
• With a spreading infection
• Immediately he improved but there was not enough
Penicillin to give him
– Recycled through his urine
• Unfortunately, he died as the dosage required was
more than they had.
• Obviously, it was a very powerful drug, but
it was so hard to produce
The USA Helps Out
• Research was difficult in war torn Britain
• Florey was sent to the USA to continue his research
– Spores were spread on his jacket
• December 1941
– US Government invests $80 Million
• 4 Multi-National Drug companies were told that the
development of Penicillin was their top priority
• Huge factories were set up to mass produce the fungus
• 1943
– Field Trials in North Africa
• 1944
– Enough to supply all the casualties on D-Day
• The Germans relied on the inferior Sulphanomides for the
duration of the war