1. Prevention is better than Cure Unless you have got the Disease!
Magic Bullets
Prevention is better than Cure
Unless you have got the Disease!

2. Prevention
Cause
Cure

3. 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

4. Salvarsan 606 Paul Ehrlich Using Dyes to kill the Syphilis Bacteria
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

5. 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

6. Industrialising Production of the Magic Bullets
How did Prontosil work
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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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