ANTIBACTERIAL
PENICILLIN
BENZYLPENICILLIN
^ but dead bacteria surrounding the mold, H H the days before antibiotics something later identified as Pénicillium notatum, that as seemingly innocuous as an infected contaminated a culture of staphylococcus scratch could be deadly That was be bacteria. fore the discovery and development of In later tests, Fleming found that the COoH penicillin, the first antibiotic, hailed by secretion from the mold was active against many as a miracle drug. a number of bacteria, but he also found The roots of penicillin's reputation as a that penicillin—its composition then unName:(2Sl5/?(6/?)-3l3-Dimethyl-7-oxomiracle drug were planted in 1942, when known—was unstable and its antibacter6-[(phenylacetyl)amino]-4-thia-1-azit pulled Anne Miller, a 33-year-old patient ial activity short-lived. (Most of the peniabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane-2-carboxylic in a hospital in New Haven, Conn., back cillin administered is rapidly cleared from acid from the brink of death. She had devel the body by the kidneys. In the early days, CAS Registry: 61-33-6 oped a streptococcal infection that near researchers would reuse penicillin exOther names: Penicillin G, benzylpenily killed her following a miscarriage. Her tracted from urine.) cillinic acid doctor had another patient, John F. Ful Introduced: 1943, consortium of Fleming stopped working on penicillin ton, who was a medical professor at Yale in 1935, but his 1929 paper in the British companies and, more important in this situation, a Journal of Experimental Pathology was Did you know that when penicillin was friend of Howard W Flore/s, an Australian being developed during World War il, enough to catch the eye of Ernst B. Chain, pathologist at the University of Oxford the British researchers rubbed peni a biochemist working with Florey in 1938. who was spearheading the development cillin mold spores into their clothing in Chain suggested to Florey that they unof penicillin as a drug. Fulton was able to dertake research on penicillin, but it was case they had to destroy their research pull strings to have 5.5 g of penicillin sent not until 1939 that they started the work to keep it from the Germans? from the pharmaceutical company Merck in earnest. in Newjersey, which was helping produce died within 18 hours. In contrast, the the drug. Within 24 hours of first receiv FOLLOWING EXTENSIVE tests for ab- treated mice survived. ing penicillin, Miller was on her way to re sorption and toxicity in several types of The results were enough to send Florey covery She continued to receive penicillin animals, Florey^ team conducted a series searching for industrial partners who could Τ S HARD TO IMAGINE TODAY, BUT IN
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