A Brief History of the Antibiotics - Essay Example

History of Antibiotics The emergence of different diseases led to the research and experimentation in search of cures for these pathological conditions that affected the human beings. Antibiotics serve as one such breakthrough of research that has helped to save many precious human lives. Diseases and pathological conditions that were considered to be incurable have been treated with the advent of these drugs. Antibiotics, also known as antimicrobial drugs are the drugs used in the treatment of infections caused by the microorganisms called bacteria. There are millions of different types of bacteria, each one causing a different sort of illness or infection. Thus the drugs to treat these infections have to be numerous, so that they target the susceptibility of each bacterial pathogen. Thus, the advances in pharmacology have brought forward a new era of antibiotics with vast options to treat the infections that were once considered lethal in the history of mankind. Major disease epidemics in the history of the world, like the Black Death by plague in early 1900s that caused deaths of millions of people were brought under control successfully with the help of antibiotics (Levinson 2008). Endemic diseases like Tuberculosis, that have been a scourge for humanity for ages and were uncontrollable despite the use of innumerable drugs and therapies, have been found to be susceptible to different combinations of antibiotics. Worldwide measures are now being taken to eradicate such diseases from the face of the earth. Thus, single or in combination, antibiotics have opened the new doors to healthy life for the sick people who had no chances of survival. Antibiotics themselves are the products of microorganisms. The drug substance produced by one microorganism has adverse effects on certain other microorganisms and serves to kill them. This is how the antibiotics were produced initially. Due to their remarkable effects on wound healing and recovery from infections, soon they became famous with the names like ‘magic bullet’ and ‘wonder drug’ (Aminov 2010, Levinson 2008). The origin of the use of antibiotics for treating the infections is as old as the infections themselves. Different communities in the past used living organisms to treat infections. In ancient times, different types of moulds were used by people to heal wounds and infections. Tetracycline antibiotics have the ability to get incorporated in the bones and accumulate in them. Studies on bones of ancient Romans of Egypt and the Nubian population of Sudan reveal traces of tetracycline in the shafts of bones, which shows that tetracycline was included in their diet. This finding is consistent with the low bone infection rates among these populations. The drug that we know as antibiotic today, was initially called Pyocyanase, isolated from pseudomonas aeruginosa by Emmerich and Low in 1899 (Aminov 2010). They studied its antimicrobial effects, but since the results were not consistent and the drug toxicity was high, the whole idea was abandoned. The emergence of the modern antibiotic era is attributed to the famous names of Paul Ehrlich and Alexander Fleming. Paul Ehrlich focused on the concept of selectivity of the drug to kill a particular microbe. He worked with different dyes that stained different organisms and proposed to lay the basis for finding the ‘magic bullet’ with toxicity to the selected microorganism without damaging the human cells. He discovered the drug Salvarsan, which was used in the treatment of Syphillis, an infection caused by Treponema pallidum. Thus the principle of selective toxicity is the basis of success of antibiotics. Despite the fact that it had major side effects since it was arsenic derivative, this was a major breakthrough as it directly treated one of the very common diseases of that time. The synthesis of Sulfonamide drug, protnosil by Josef Klarer and Fritz Mietzsch was another major discovery in the history of antibiotics. In 1900s, Alexander Fleming discovered a substance with antimicrobial characteristics in the tears. He named this substance Lysozyme due to its destructive action on bacteria. September 1928 marked the incidental discovery of the “magic bullet”, i.e. Penicillin. Alexander Fleming had already been working on Staphylococcus bacteria. While sorting through the glass plates that had bacteria grown on them for the past days, he noticed the lysed bacterial colonies that had no bacterial growth on one of the plates. This plate had a mould growing in on it from the adjacent area (Levy 2002). September 3rd 1928 thus witnessed the discovery of the most remarkable drug in treating infectious diseases, Penicillin, after the name of the fungus Penicillium notatum that it grew from. In 1940, Florey and Earnest isolated Penicillin. In 1941, Selman Waksman coined the term antibiotic, which refers to any molecule produced by a microorganism and which antagonizes another microorganism (Clardy et al 2009). Howard Florey and Earnest Chain further continued their research and published a paper about purification of penicillin. Their research formed the basis of mass production of penicillin in 1945 (Aminov 2010). The decade from 1945 to 1955 proved to be the golden years in the age of antibiotic development, because of the discovery of Chloramphenicol, Tertracycline and Streptomycin (Clardy et al 2009). The ever increasing demand of antibiotics led to their synthetic production. The synthetic antibiotics are chemically similar to their natural counterparts. Research into the bacterial cell structures and the antibiotic susceptibility led to the production of different classes of antibiotics that selectively target a particular cell organelle and destroy it, as a result rendering the whole bacterium dead or nonpathogenic. Other antibiotics target the enzymes involved in bacterial cell processes and hinder the growth and replication of bacteria and thus cease the disease progression. The structures and enzymes in a bacterial cell that are attacked by antibiotics include cell wall and its synthesizing enzymes, ribosome and protein synthesizing enzymes, nucleic acids and DNA replication enzymes. The antibiotics can thus be bactericidal, which attack the cell wall and destroy the organism, or they can be bacteriostatic (interfere with DNA or protein synthesis) and thus hamper the microorganism growth. The selection of an antibiotic against a particular organism is based on the technique of gram staining. The microbes can either be labeled as gram positive or Gram negative depending on whether or not they take up the stains. Determining the nature of organism is essential before starting antibiotic therapy, it is only then that the treatment is successful. In acutely ill patients, in whom urgent treatment is required and susceptibility cultures cannot be awaited, ‘Broad Spectrum Antibiotics’ are started as emergency empiric therapy. The most important cell wall inhibiting antibiotics are Beta- Lactam antibiotics and Vancomycin. Beta- Lactam group is named after the Beta Lactam ring in their structure, which is important for the activity of the drug. They are further classified as Penicillins, Cephalosporins, Carbapenems and Monobactams. Cephalosporins are the modern antibiotics with further divisions into first, second, third and fourth generation Cephalosporins. Protein synthesis inhibitors attack the bacterial ribosomes. Their success is based on the difference in ribosome structure of men and bacteria as mammalian ribosome is larger 80S while bacteria have smaller 70S ribosome. The protein synthesis inhibitors include tetracyclines, Aminoglycosides, Macrolides, Chloramphenicol and Clindamycin. Fluoroquinolones (Norfloxacin, Nalidixic acid) interfere with DNA gyrase enzymes and hamper Dna replication. Folate antagonists (sulfonamides and Trimethoprim) are based on the principle of selective toxicity. Humans cannot synthesize folic acid, so they rely on external sources. Thus the antagonists interfere with bacterial folate synthesis from Purines and Pyrimidine bases (Finkel et al 2009,Katzung et al 2009). The cure that magic bullet brought to the sufferings of mankind, soon led to its misuse as well. This led to the phenomenon of ‘resistance’. This was predicted by Alexander Fleming in the very beginning when he discovered Penicillin (Levy 2002). Microorganisms have the ability to mutate, rendering the antibiotics ineffective against new emerging strains of organisms. Bacteria have the ability to adapt to their surroundings and evolve to survive (Katzung et al 2009). They can enzymatically degrade the antibiotics. Inappropriate use of antibiotics without knowing the susceptibility of the organism, has led to the emergence of multi- drug resistant strains, as in the case of Tuberculosis, which is a global health problem (Aminov 2010). In order to continue getting benefits out of the antibiotics, it is necessary to counter the phenomenon of resistance. The public health personnel, microbiologists, pharmaceuticals, and ecologists need to work together to find more susceptibility targets to fight against the resistant strains and design regimens that counter the compliance issue among the patients (Aminov 2010). This is a global challenge of utmost importance before the golden era of antibiotics becomes a chapter in the history itself. Works Cited Aminov RI (2010) A brief history of the antibiotic era: lessons learned and challenges for the future. Front. Microbio. 1:134. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2010.00134. Web 28 March 2010. http://admin.frontiersin.org/antimicrobials,_resistance_and_chemotherapy/10.3389/fmicb.2010.00134/full Top of Form Clardy, J, M.A Fischbach, and C.R Currie. "The Natural History of Antibiotics." Current Biology. 19.11 (2009). Print. Bottom of Form Top of Form Finkel, Richard, Michelle A. Clark, Luigi X. Cubeddu, Michael Cooper, Christopher T. Flatt, and Laura O'Leary.Pharmacology: Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews. Philadelphia [etc.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009. Print. Katzung, Bertram G, Susan B. Masters, and Anthony J. Trevor. Basic & Clinical Pharmacology. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical, 2009. Print. Top of Form Levy, Stuart B. The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Power. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Pub, 2002. Print. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Levinson, Warren. Review of Medical Microbiology and Immunology. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical, 2008. Print. Bottom of Form Read More