When did penicillin begin? Madame Penicillin. How a Soviet scientist invented an analogue of the first antibiotic

The world famous inventor of antibiotics is the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, who is credited with the discovery of penicillins from molds. It was a new turn in the development of medicine. For such a grandiose discovery, the inventor of penicillin even received the Nobel Prize. The scientist reached the truth by research, saved not a single generation of people from death. The ingenious invention of antibiotics made it possible to exterminate the pathogenic flora of the body without serious health consequences.

What are antibiotics

Many decades have passed since the appearance of the first antibiotic, but medical workers all over the world and ordinary people are well aware of this discovery. Antibiotics themselves are a separate pharmacological group with synthetic components, the purpose of which is to disrupt the integrity of the membranes of pathogenic pathogens, stop their further activity, quietly remove them from the body, and prevent general intoxication. The first antibiotics and antiseptics appeared in the 40s of the last century, since that time their range has grown significantly.

Useful properties of mold

From the increased activity of pathogenic bacteria, antibiotics that were developed from mold fungi help well. The therapeutic effect of antibacterial drugs in the body is systemic, all this is due to the beneficial properties of mold. The discoverer Fleming managed to isolate penicillin by laboratory method, the benefits of such a unique composition are presented below:

• green mold inhibits bacteria resistant to other drugs;
• the usefulness of mold is evident in the treatment of typhoid fever;
• mold destroys such painful bacteria as staphylococci, streptococci.

Medicine before the invention of penicillin

In the Middle Ages, mankind knew about the colossal benefits of moldy bread and a separate type of mushroom. Such medicinal components were actively used to disinfect purulent wounds of combatants, to exclude blood poisoning after surgery. Before the scientific discovery of antibiotics, there was still a lot of time, so the doctors drew a positive aspect of penicillins from the surrounding nature, determined through numerous experiments. They tested the effectiveness of new funds on wounded soldiers, women in a state of puerperal fever.

How are infectious diseases treated?

Without knowing the world of antibiotics, people lived according to the principle: “Only the strongest survive”, according to the principle of natural selection. Women died of sepsis during childbirth, and fighters from blood poisoning and suppuration of open wounds. At that time, they could not find a remedy for effective cleansing of wounds and exclusion of infection, therefore, healers and healers more often used local antiseptics. Later, in 1867, a British surgeon determined the infectious causes of suppuration and the benefits of carbolic acid. Then it was the main treatment of purulent wounds, without the participation of antibiotics.

Who Invented Penicillin

There are several conflicting answers to the main question, who discovered penicillin, but it is officially believed that the creator of penicillin is the Scottish professor Alexander Fleming. Since childhood, the future inventor dreamed of finding a unique medicine, so he entered a medical school based at St. Mary's Hospital, from which he graduated in 1901. A colossal role in the discovery of penicillin was played by Almroth Wright, the inventor of the typhoid vaccine. Fleming was fortunate enough to collaborate with him in 1902.

A young microbiologist studied at the Kilmarnock Academy, then moved to London. Already in the status of a certified scientist, Flemming discovered the existence of penicillium notatum. The scientific discovery was patented, the scientist after the end of the Second World War in 1945 even received the Nobel Prize. Prior to this, Fleming's work has been repeatedly awarded prizes and valuable awards. People began taking antibiotics for experimental purposes in 1932, and before that, studies were carried out mainly on laboratory mice.

Developments of European scientists

The founder of bacteriology and immunology is the French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who in the nineteenth century described in detail the detrimental effect of soil bacteria on tuberculosis pathogens. The world-famous scientist proved by laboratory methods that some microorganisms - bacteria can be exterminated by others - mold fungi. The beginning of scientific discoveries was laid, the prospects were grandiose.

The famous Italian Bartolomeo Gosio in 1896 in his laboratory invented mycophenolic acid, which became known as one of the first antibiotics. Three years later, German doctors Emmerich and Lov discovered pyocenase, a synthetic substance that can reduce the pathogenic activity of pathogens of diphtheria, typhoid and cholera, and demonstrate a stable chemical reaction against the vital activity of microbes in a nutrient medium. Therefore, disputes in science on the topic of who invented antibiotics do not subside at the present time.

Who invented penicillin in Russia

Two Russian professors - Polotebnov and Manassein argued about the origin of mold. The first professor argued that all microbes came from the mold, and the second was categorically against it. Manassein began to investigate green mold and found that colonies of pathogenic flora were completely absent near its localization. The second scientist began to study the antibacterial properties of such a natural composition. Such an absurd accident in the future will become a true salvation for all mankind.

Russian scientist Ivan Mechnikov studied the action of acidophilus bacteria with fermented milk products, which have a beneficial effect on systemic digestion. Zinaida Yermolyeva generally stood at the origins of microbiology, became the founder of the famous antiseptic lysozyme, and is known in history as “Mistress Penicillin”. Fleming realized his discoveries in England, in parallel, domestic scientists worked on the development of penicillin. American scientists also did not sit in vain.

US inventor of penicillin

American researcher Zelman Waksman was simultaneously developing antibiotics, but in the United States. In 1943, he succeeded in obtaining a broad-spectrum synthetic component called streptomycin, effective against tuberculosis and plague. later, its industrial production was established in order to destroy the harmful bacterial flora from a practical standpoint.

Timeline of discoveries

The creation of antibiotics was gradual, while using the colossal experience of generations, proven general scientific facts. In order for antibiotic therapy in modern medicine to be so successful, many scientists "had a hand in it." Alexander Fleming is officially considered the inventor of antibiotics, but other legendary figures also helped patients. Here's what you need to know:

• 1896 - B. Gozio created mycophenolic acid against anthrax;
• 1899 - R. Emmerich and O. Low discovered a local antiseptic based on pyocenase;
• 1928 - A. Fleming discovered an antibiotic;
• 1939 - D. Gerhard received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the antibacterial effect of prontosil;
• 1939 - N. A. Krasilnikov and A. I. Korenyako became the inventors of the antibiotic mycetin, R. Dubos discovered tyrothricin;
• 1940 - E. B. Chain and G. Flory proved the existence of a stable extract of penicillin;
• 1942 - Z. Waksman proposed the creation of the medical term "antibiotic".

History of the discovery of antibiotics

The inventor decided to become a doctor, following the example of his older brother Thomas, who received a diploma in England and worked as an ophthalmologist. Many interesting and fateful events happened in his life, which allowed him to make this grandiose discovery, provided an opportunity to productively destroy pathogenic flora, and ensure the death of entire colonies of bacteria.

Research by Alexander Fleming

The discovery of European scientists was preceded by an unusual story that happened in 1922. Having caught a cold, the inventor of antibiotics did not wear a mask while working and accidentally sneezed into a Petri dish. After some time, he suddenly discovered that harmful microbes had died at the site of saliva. It was a significant step in the fight against pathogenic infections, the ability to cure a dangerous disease. The scientific work was devoted to the result of such a laboratory study.

The next fateful coincidence in the work of the inventor took place six years later, when in 1928 the scientist left for a month to rest with his family, having previously made inoculations of staphylococcus in a nutrient medium from agar-agar. Upon his return, he discovered that the mold was fenced off from staphylococci with a clear liquid that was not viable for bacteria.

Preparation of the active substance and clinical studies

Considering the experience and achievements of the inventor of antibiotics, microbiologists Howard Flory and Ernst Cheyne at Oxford decided to go further and began to obtain a drug suitable for mass use. Laboratory studies were carried out for 2 years, as a result of which the pure active substance was determined. The inventor of antibiotics himself tested it in the society of scientists.

With this innovation, Flory and Chain treated several complicated cases of progressive sepsis and pneumonia. Later, penicillins developed in the laboratory began to successfully treat such terrible diagnoses as osteomyelitis, gas gangrene, puerperal fever, staphylococcal septicemia, syphilis, syphilis, and other invasive infections.

What year was penicillin invented?

The official date for the nationwide recognition of the antibiotic is 1928. However, this kind of synthetic substances have been identified before - at the internal level. The inventor of antibiotics is Alexander Fleming, but European, domestic scientists could compete for this honorary title. The Scot managed to glorify his name in history, thanks to this scientific discovery.

Launch into mass production

Since the discovery was officially recognized during the Second World War, it was very difficult to establish production. However, everyone understood that millions of lives could be saved with his participation. Therefore, in 1943, in the conditions of hostilities, a leading American company took up the serial production of antibiotics. In this way, it was possible not only to reduce mortality rates, but also to increase the life expectancy of the civilian population.

Application during World War II

Such a scientific discovery was especially appropriate during the period of hostilities, since thousands of people died from festering wounds and large-scale blood poisoning. These were the first experiments on humans that produced a sustained therapeutic effect. After the end of the war, the production of such antibiotics not only continued, but also increased significantly in volume.

Significance of the invention of antibiotics

Modern society to this day should be grateful that scientists of their time managed to come up with antibiotics effective against infections and brought their developments to life. Adults and children can safely use such a pharmacological appointment, cure a number of dangerous diseases, avoid potential complications, and death. The inventor of antibiotics is not forgotten at the present time.

Positive points

Thanks to antibiotics, death from pneumonia and childbed fever has become a rarity. In addition, there is a positive trend in such dangerous diseases as typhoid fever and tuberculosis. With the help of modern antibiotics, it is possible to exterminate the pathogenic flora of the body, cure dangerous diagnoses at an early stage of infection, and exclude global blood poisoning. The infant mortality rate has also noticeably decreased; women die during childbirth much less frequently than in the Middle Ages.

Negative aspects

The inventor of antibiotics then did not know that over time, pathogenic microorganisms will adapt to the antibiotic environment and cease to die under the influence of penicillin. In addition, there is no cure for all pathogens, the inventor of such a development has not yet appeared, although modern scientists have been striving for this for years, decades.

Gene mutations and the problem of bacterial resistance

Pathogenic microorganisms by their nature turned out to be the so-called "inventors", because under the influence of broad-spectrum antibiotic drugs they are able to gradually mutate, acquiring increased resistance to synthetic substances. The issue of bacterial resistance for modern pharmacology is particularly acute.

Video

Humanity has passed a difficult and thorny path along the path of its development. Over the past millennia, thousands of great discoveries and outstanding inventions have been made in various areas of human life. One of these greatest discoveries, which made a real revolution in medicine, was invention of penicillin the world's first antibiotic. At the beginning of the 20th century, mankind has completely mastered such inventions as the telegraph, telephone, radio, automobile, airplane, and dreams of space exploration. And along with this, thousands of people around the world continued to die from typhus, dysentery, pneumonic plague and even pneumonia, and sepsis became a death sentence. The idea of ​​fighting microbes with the help of microbes themselves was put forward in the 19th century. So, as a result of the research carried out by Louis Pasteur, it was found that anthrax bacilli die under the influence of certain microbes. A recently discovered dissertation by medical student Ernest Duchesne indicates that as early as 1897 he used mold (the penicillin contained there) to fight bacteria that infect the human body. He performed his experiments on guinea pigs for the treatment of typhus. Unfortunately, the opening was not completed due to the sudden death of E. Duchesne.

Officially, the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming is considered the inventor of the first antibiotic (penicillin), and the date of its discovery is September 3, 1928. While studying staphylococci, the scientist noticed that after a month mold fungi formed on one of the plates with cultures, destroying the colonies of staphylococci placed there earlier. The mushrooms grown on a plate with staphylococci, Fleming attributed to the genus Penicillaceae, the isolated substance was called penicillin. Further studies have shown that in addition to staphylococcus, penicillin also affects pathogens that cause scarlet fever, diphtheria, pneumonia and meningitis. Unfortunately, against paratyphoid and typhoid fever, the remedy he had isolated turned out to be powerless. In 1929, the scientist published a report on his discovery in the English Journal of Experimental Pathology. Further studies showed that the production of penicillin is slow, the scientist could not purify and extract the active substance. Until 1939, Fleming failed to develop an effective culture, the new drug was very unstable. Fleming worked on its improvement until 1942.

In 1940, the biochemist E.B. actively tried to purify and isolate penicillin. Chain and bacteriologist H.W. Flory, already in 1941, enough penicillin was accumulated for an effective dose. A 15-year-old with blood poisoning was the first to be saved thanks to the antibiotic he received. For the discovery of penicillin, E. Chain, A. Fleming and W. X. Flory received the Nobel Prize for three in 1945. All three refused patents for the invention of penicillin, believing that a tool that could save humanity should not become a source of profit. This is the only time that no one has ever claimed copyright for an invention of this magnitude. Thanks to penicillin and the victory over dangerous infectious diseases, medicine has managed to extend a person's life by 30-35 years.

During the Second World War, the production of penicillin on an industrial scale was established in the United States, which saved the lives of tens of thousands of wounded soldiers. After the war, the antibiotic production method improved significantly, since 1952 it has found practical application on a global scale. With the help of penicillin, such previously fatal diseases as osteomyelitis, syphilis, pneumonia, puerperal fever were cured, the development of infections after injuries and burns was excluded. Antibacterial drugs were soon isolated. Antibiotics have become a panacea for all diseases for several decades. In the Soviet Union, a great merit in the creation of a number of antibiotics belongs to the outstanding microbiologist ZV Ermolyeva. She is the first Russian scientist to investigate interferon as an antiviral agent. According to Professor W. X. Flory himself, penicillin, which Z. V. Ermolyeva received, was 1.4 times more effective than the Anglo-American. The first portions of penicillin were obtained by Yermolyeva in 1942. Soon, thanks to her, the mass production of the Soviet antibiotic was established.

Inventor Story by: Alexander Fleming
A country: Great Britain
Time of invention: September 3, 1928

Antibiotics are one of the most remarkable inventions of the 20th century in the field of medicine. Modern people are far from always aware of how much they owe to these medicinal preparations.

Mankind in general very quickly gets used to the amazing achievements of its science, and sometimes it takes some effort to imagine life as it was, for example, before the invention, radio or.

Just as quickly, a huge family of various antibiotics entered our lives, the first of which was penicillin.
Today it seems surprising to us that even in the 30s of the XX century, tens of thousands of people died every year from dysentery, that pneumonia in many cases ended in death, that sepsis was a real scourge of all surgical patients, who died in large numbers from blood poisoning, that typhoid was considered the most dangerous and intractable disease, and pneumonic plague inevitably led the patient to death.

All these terrible diseases (and many others, previously incurable, such as tuberculosis) were defeated by antibiotics.

Even more striking is the effect of these drugs on military medicine. It is hard to believe, but in previous wars, most soldiers died not from bullets and shrapnel, but from purulent infections caused by wounds.

It is known that in the space around us there are myriads of microscopic organisms of microbes, among which there are many dangerous pathogens. Under normal conditions, our skin prevents them from getting inside. organism.

But during the injury, dirt entered the open wounds along with millions of putrefactive bacteria (cocci). They began to multiply with tremendous speed, penetrated deep into the tissues, and after a few hours no surgeon could save a person: the wound festered, the temperature rose, sepsis or gangrene began.

A person died not so much from the wound itself, but from wound complications. Medicine was powerless before them. At best, the doctor managed to amputate the affected organ and thus stopped the spread of the disease.

To deal with wound complications, it was necessary to learn how to paralyze the microbes that cause these complications, to learn how to neutralize the cocci that got into the wound. But how can this be achieved? It turned out that it is possible to fight against microorganisms directly with their help, since some microorganisms in the course of their life activity emit substances capable of destroying other microorganisms.

The idea of ​​using microbes to fight germs dates back to the 19th century. Thus, Louis Pasteur discovered that anthrax bacilli are killed by some other microbes. But it is clear that the solution of this problem required a lot of work - it is not easy to understand the life and relationships of microorganisms, it is even more difficult to comprehend which of them are at enmity with each other and how one microbe defeats another.

However, the most difficult thing was to imagine that the formidable enemy of the coccus has long been and is well known to man, that he has been living side by side with him for thousands of years, every now and then reminding myself. It turned out to be an ordinary mold - an insignificant fungus, which in the form of spores is always present in the air and readily grows on everything old and damp, whether it is a cellar wall or a piece.

However, the bactericidal properties of mold were known as early as the 19th century. In the 60s of the last century, a dispute arose between two Russian doctors - Alexei Polotebnov and Vyacheslav Manassein. Polotebnov argued that mold is the ancestor of all microbes, that is, that all microbes come from it. Manassein argued that this was not true.

To substantiate his arguments, he began to investigate green molds (in Latin, penicillium glaucum). He sowed the mold on a nutrient medium and noted with amazement: where the mold fungus grew, bacteria never developed. From this, Manassein concluded that the mold prevents the growth of microorganisms.

Later, Polotebnov observed the same: the liquid in which the mold appeared always remained transparent, therefore, did not contain bacteria. Polotebnov realized that as a researcher he was wrong in his conclusions. However, as a doctor, he decided to immediately investigate this unusual property of such an easily accessible substance as mold.

The attempt was successful: the ulcers, covered with an emulsion that contained mold, quickly healed. Polotebnov made an interesting experiment: he covered deep skin ulcers of patients with a mixture of mold and bacteria and did not observe any complications in them. In one of his articles in 1872, he recommended treating wounds and deep abscesses in the same way. Unfortunately, Polotebnov's experiments did not attract attention, although many people died from post-wound complications in all surgical clinics at that time.

Again, the remarkable properties of mold were discovered half a century later by the Scot Alexander Fleming. From his youth, Fleming dreamed of finding a substance that could destroy pathogenic bacteria, and stubbornly engaged in microbiology.

Fleming's laboratory was housed in a small room in the pathology department of one of London's major hospitals. This room was always stuffy, crowded and disorderly. To escape the stuffiness, Fleming kept the window open all the time. Together with another doctor, Fleming was engaged in research on staphylococci.

But, without finishing his work, this doctor left the department. The old cups of microbial colonies still stood on the shelves of the laboratory - Fleming always considered cleaning his room a waste of time.

One day, deciding to write an article about staphylococci, Fleming looked into these cups and found that many of the cultures that were there were covered with mold. This, however, was not surprising - apparently, mold spores had entered the laboratory through the window. Something else was surprising: when Fleming began to explore culture, in many there was not a trace of staphylococci in the cups - there was only mold and transparent, dew-like drops.

Has ordinary mold destroyed all disease-causing microbes? Fleming immediately decided to test his guess and put some mold in a test tube of nutrient broth. When the fungus developed, he settled in the same different bacteria and put it in a thermostat. After examining the nutrient medium, Fleming found that light and transparent spots formed between the mold and colonies of bacteria - the mold, as it were, hampered the microbes, preventing them from growing around it.

Then Fleming decided to make a larger experiment: he transplanted the fungus into a large vessel and began to observe its development. Soon the surface of the vessel was covered with "" - a fungus that had grown and huddled in cramped quarters. "Felt" changed its color several times: first it was white, then green, then black. The nutritious broth also changed color - from transparent it turned into yellow.

“Obviously, the mold releases some substances into the environment,” Fleming thought, and decided to check whether they have properties that are harmful to bacteria. New experience showed that the yellow liquid destroys the same microorganisms that the mold itself destroyed. Moreover, the liquid had an extremely high activity - Fleming diluted it twenty times, and the solution still remained detrimental to pathogenic bacteria.

Fleming realized that he was on the verge of an important discovery. He abandoned all business, stopped other studies. The mold fungus penicillium notatum is now entirely engulfed his attention. For further experiments, Fleming needed gallons of mold broth - he studied on which day of growth, at what and on what nutrient medium, the action of the mysterious yellow substance would be most effective in killing microbes.

At the same time, it turned out that the mold itself, as well as the yellow broth, turned out to be harmless to animals. Fleming injected them into the vein of a rabbit, into the abdominal cavity of a white mouse, washed the skin with broth and even buried it in the eyes - no unpleasant phenomena were observed. In a test tube, a diluted yellow substance - a product secreted by mold - retarded the growth of staphylococci, but did not disrupt the functions of blood leukocytes. Fleming named this substance penicillin.

Since then, he has constantly thought about an important question: how to isolate the active ingredient from a filtered mold broth? Alas, it turned out to be extremely difficult. Meanwhile, it was clear that introducing into the human blood an unpurified broth, which contained a foreign protein, was certainly dangerous.

Fleming's young associates, doctors like him, not chemists, made many attempts solve this problem. Working in artisanal conditions, they spent a lot of time and energy but achieved nothing. Each time after the purification undertaken, penicillin decomposed and lost its healing properties.

In the end, Fleming realized that this task was not up to him and that its solution should be left to others. In February 1929, he made a report to the London Medical Research Club about an unusually strong antibacterial agent he had found. This message didn't get any attention.

However, Fleming was a stubborn Scot. He wrote a long article detailing his experiments and published it in a scientific journal. At all congresses and medical conventions, he somehow made a reminder of his discovery. Gradually about penicillin became known not only in England, but also in America.

Finally, in 1939, two English scientists - Howard Florey, professor of pathology at one of the Oxford institutes, and Ernst Cheyne, a biochemist who fled Germany from Nazi persecution - paid close attention to penicillin.

Chain and Flory were looking for a topic to work with. The difficulty of the task of isolating purified penicillin attracted them. There was a strain (a culture of microbes isolated from certain sources) sent there by Fleming at Oxford University. With him, they began to experiment.

In order to turn penicillin into a drug, it had to be associated with some substance soluble in water, but in such a way that, when purified, it would not lose its amazing properties. For a long time, this task seemed unsolvable - penicillin quickly collapsed in an acidic environment (therefore, by the way, it could not be taken orally) and did not last long in an alkaline environment, it easily passed into the ether, but if it was not put on ice, it also collapsed in it .

Only after many experiments, the liquid secreted by the fungus and containing aminopenicillic acid was filtered in a complicated way and dissolved in a special organic solvent, in which potassium salts, which are highly soluble in water, did not dissolve. After exposure to potassium acetate, white crystals of the potassium salt of penicillin precipitated. After many manipulations, Chain received a slimy mass, which he finally managed to turn into a brown powder.

The very first experiments with it had an amazing effect: even a small granule of penicillin, diluted in a ratio of one per million, had a powerful bactericidal property - deadly cocci placed in this medium died in a few minutes. At the same time, the drug injected into the vein not only did not kill her, but had no effect on the animal at all.

Several other scientists joined Cheyne's experiments. The action of penicillin has been comprehensively studied in white mice. They were infected with staphylococci and streptococci in doses more than lethal. Half of them were injected with penicillin, and all of these mice survived. The rest died after a few. It was soon discovered that penicillin destroys not only cocci, but also the causative agents of gangrene.

In 1942, penicillin was tested on a patient who was dying of meningitis. He recovered very soon. The news of this made a great impression. However, it was not possible to establish the production of a new drug in warring England. Flory went to the USA, and here in 1943 in the city of Peoria, the laboratory of Dr. Coghill first began the industrial production of penicillin. In 1945, Fleming, Flory and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize for their outstanding discoveries.

In the USSR, penicillin from the mold penicillium crustosum (this fungus was taken from the wall of one of the Moscow bomb shelters) was received in 1942 by Professor Zinaida Ermolyeva. There was a war. The hospitals were overflowing with the wounded with purulent lesions caused by staphylococci and streptococci, complicating already severe wounds.

The treatment was difficult. Many wounded died from purulent infection. In 1944, after much research, Yermolyeva went to the front to test the effect of her drug. Before the operation, Yermolyeva gave all the wounded an intramuscular injection of penicillin. After that, most of the fighters' wounds healed without any complications and suppuration, without fever.

Penicillin seemed like a real miracle to seasoned field surgeons. He cured even the most seriously ill patients who were already ill with blood poisoning or pneumonia. In the same year, factory production of penicillin was established in the USSR.

In the future, the family of antibiotics began to expand rapidly. As early as 1942, Gause isolated gramicidin, and in 1944 Waksman, an American of Ukrainian origin, obtained streptomycin. The era of antibiotics has begun which in subsequent years saved the lives of millions of people.

It is curious that penicillin remained unpatented. Those who discovered and created it refused to receive patents - they believed that a substance that could bring such benefits to humanity should not serve as a source of income. This is probably the only discovery of this magnitude for which no one has claimed copyright.

Penicillium chrysogenium (notatum) is a member of the genus Penicillium. "Record holder" for the production of penicillin

The very idea of ​​using other microorganisms (or what they synthesize) to fight microorganisms has been around in medicine for a very long time.
In the microbial community itself, some microbes constantly suppress others and are in such a dynamic balance.

As early as 1897, long before the discovery of penicillin, Ernest Duchene used mold in an experiment to treat typhus in guinea pigs.

Penicillium roqueforti - "noble mold". Used to make Roquefort cheese and gives it a distinctive flavor

What do you think guinea pigs, blue cheese and tap water have in common?

The question is rather difficult. It would seem: nothing in common. But if you were a French medical student of the late 19th century, then these subjects would be your scientific reagents.
These reagents were used by the brilliant Ernest Duchen to discover antibiotics, almost 35 years before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.

So the history of anti-bitics did not begin with Fleming, no. Fleming was not the first to notice the antibacterial properties of mold. Mold was used to heal wounds by the ancient Egyptians. And, although in ancient Egypt there was no scientific support for many medical actions, one should not forget about the remarkable powers of observation of the ancient healers.

Ernest Duchen

It was he who first described the antibacterial properties of penicillin. Very little is known about his life. Born in Paris, he studied at the military medical school in Lyon, where he entered at the age of twenty.
Duchenne was simply fascinated by microbes. Still would! The discovery of pathogenic properties in microbes, the works of Louis Pasteur, simply turned the worldview of physicians of that time. Ernest Duchen decided to write his dissertation under the guidance of Professor of Microbiology Gabriel Roux. Gabriel Roux was then in charge of the laboratory responsible for the quality of the water supply in Lyon. Duchenne's dissertation was devoted to the following observation: tap water never got moldy, but mold could grow well in distilled water. The first suggestion was that bacteria prevent mold from growing in tap water.

Ernest grew Penicillum glaucum. This mold is used to make Gorgonzola and Stilton cheeses. He placed it in containers with tap and boiled water. Then he added typhoid fever and E. coli - the mold quickly died. It turned out that the bacteria in the water kill the mold. Duchenne began to set different conditions: temperature, acidity of the environment, but the mold did not always die. Sometimes the fungus won.
Again, the question arose: can mold somehow “respond” to bacteria? Can she fight them? In an experiment on guinea pigs, a decrease in the virulence of bacteria was found. Moreover, by injecting the mold, Duchene was able to cure the animal. A similar experiment will be conducted by Alexander Fleming, who is often called the discoverer of penicillin.

Much has been written about how Fleming discovered penicillin. So why is Duchenne not remembered as the discoverer of penicillin? There are several reasons for this. Well, first of all, he was researching Penicillum glausum, as opposed to another type of mold, Penicillum notanum. Mold, which actually synthesizes this penicillin. Later it was found that Penicillum glausum produces another, weaker antibiotic - patulin (by the way, it is toxic and works in high concentrations, therefore it is not used). Probably, if it were not for the health of the young scientist, as well as a short life path (he died of tuberculosis in 1912, having lost his wife long before that from the same tuberculosis), the discovery of penicillin would have belonged to him.

Alexander Fleming

But a fact is a fact. Alexander Fleming was the inventor and discoverer of penicillin. The date of discovery of the most famous antibiotic is September 3, 1928 (Birthday of penicillin). Fleming by that time was already widely known, had a reputation as a brilliant researcher.
Mankind still owes the discovery of penicillin to this Scottish biochemist. After the First World War, in which the "father of penicillin" served as a military doctor, Fleming could not accept the fact that a large number of soldiers died from infectious complications. In 1918 he returned from the war to work in the bacteriological laboratory of St. Mary's Hospital, where he had worked before (and where he would work until his death). In 1922, an incident occurred that, of course, looked more like a fable, but nevertheless, six years ahead of the discovery of penicillin. Fleming, who had a cold, accidentally sneezed on a Petri dish where there were bacterial colonies. A few days later he found stunted growth of bacteria (Micrococcus lysodeikticus) in some places. This is how lysozyme (muramidase) was discovered. This hydrolytic enzyme breaks down the walls of bacteria, that is, it has bactericidal properties. A lot of it in the secretions of nasal mucus, saliva (why animals can lick their wounds), lacrimal fluid. There is a lot of it in breast milk (moreover, it is noticeably more than in cow's milk and when feeding, its concentration does not decrease over time, but increases). Of course, when penicillin is discovered, interest in lysozyme will noticeably drop, until the discovery of chicken protein lysozyme.

As Alexander Fleming himself later noted, chance helped the discovery of penicillin. Working in the laboratory and studying the enzyme lysozyme, Fleming did not differ in order in the workplace (although scientists have their own order!). As is often the case with geniuses (remember at least Einstein's desktop), the scientist's laboratory was a real mess. Fleming, returning after a month of absence, noticed that mold fungi had appeared on one cup with staphylococcus cultures. The fungal colony dissolved the inoculated culture. The mold belonged to the genus Penicillaceae, which is why the isolated substance was later called penicillin.

The name penicillin is translated as "writing brush", a similar similarity is visible under a microscope.

Howard Flory

And although Alexander Fleming is remembered when it comes to the discovery of penicillin, other scientists, in particular the pharmacologist Govrad Walter Flory, have taken practical advantage of this discovery. In 1938, Florey, working with Ernest Cheyne and Norman Heatley at the University of Oxford, England, began experimenting with the antibacterial properties of the fungus Penicillium notatum. Fleming wrote about the properties of the fungus to suppress bacterial growth in his writings.
The first patient to be prescribed penicillin was Albert Alexander, a London policeman. A serious infection that affected part of the face, the periorbital region of the eye, the scalp, began with a small prick of a rose thorn. Flory and Cheyne gave the patient penicillin, and during the first day there was a good trend. However, it was not possible to determine the optimal dose of the drug (it was not known even then) and the infectious process nevertheless led to the death of the patient. The experiments continued, the drug was administered to seriously ill children with impressive effects. It is now believed that the work of Flory and Cheyne saved more than 80 million people.

Ernest Chain

And now it is worth saying about the previously mentioned biochemist Ernest Boris Cheyne. Born into a Jewish family and living in Germany, he was forced to emigrate to England when Hitler came to power. As co-recipient of the future Nobel Prize for the discovery of penicillin, Cheyne was for that part of the work in which he showed the structure of penicillin and successfully isolated the active substance. To isolate penicillin, for one therapeutic dose, it was necessary to process about 500 liters of nutrient broth with mold!
Cheyne wrote: “The difficulties Fleming encountered only spurred my interest in Fleming's discovery of penicillin. I told Flory that we would find a way to at least partially purify penicillin, despite its instability.
In 1938, Cheyne and his colleague Norman Heatley quickly came to the conclusion that penicillin, unlike lysozyme, is not an enzyme, but a small molecule of organic origin.
The small size of the molecule has encouraged researchers: it will be easy to decipher the molecular structure and synthesize it. The fact that it will be easy, scientists were wrong ...
It was found that the composition of penicillin includes a complex of structures, which were later called beta-lactams.


Cheyne suggested the possibility of the existence of such a structure earlier, but the issue was resolved only in 1949.

When, using X-ray crystallography, Dorothy Hodgkin determined the arrangement of atoms in the crystal lattice of penicillin. It was after 1949, after determining the exact molecular structure of penicillin, that it became possible to mass-produce the drug cheaply.
By the way, Dorothy Hodgkin also received the Nobel Prize for the study of the crystal lattice in x-rays, in 1964. This outstanding woman laid the foundations of the method by which it became possible to study the structure of DNA (the program "Human Genome").

Cheyne and Flory used a new lyophilization technique to obtain penicillin in a concentrated form. The penicillin solution was frozen, and then, at low temperature and low pressure, the water was expelled, leaving valuable material.

Penicillium chrysogenium (notatum): how they found the most "penicillin" fungus

Since the beginning of World War II, the need for penicillin has increased dramatically. The need for such a drug was obvious.
In 1940, a group of scientists at Oxford University (led by Florey and Cheyne) took Fleming's penicillin out of stock and began to look for ways to produce it in large quantities.
Since the bombing of London began and the risk of occupation arose, the scientists went to negotiate in New York (the probability of the German landing was so great that Cheyne even soaked his jacket with healing mold, explaining to his colleagues: in which case, save this jacket first of all).
In New York, the arriving scientists were met with little enthusiasm: the production of penicillin rarely exceeded 4 units of action per 1 milliliter of nutrient medium. This is very little: on a bottle of penicillin, for example, it says "1,000,000 units." For one dose of the drug, 250 liters of broth had to be processed.
The goal was immediately outlined: to find the most “yielding” fungus. First, the scientists went to Peoria (Illinois), where there was a research laboratory for studying the metabolism of mold. Laboratory staff amassed a significant collection, but only a few mold strains could produce penicillin.
We began to connect friends: to send samples of soil, mold grains, fruits and vegetables. They hired one woman to go around shops, bakeries, cheese dairies, looking for new samples of blue-green mold. Her name was Miss Mary Hunt, nicknamed "Moldy Mary" for her good work.
The course of history was changed by the cantatula melon, on which a blue-green fungus settled. This mold produced 250 units of penicillin per milliliter of growth medium. One of the strains that mutated from it began to produce 50,000 units! All penicillin-producing strains today are descendants of the same mold that was found in 1943. It was the fungus Penicillium chrysogenium, formerly known as Penicillium notatum.
From that moment, the era of industrial production of penicillin began.

When Fleming, Florey and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945, Fleming said: “They say I invented penicillin. But man could not invent it - this substance was created by nature. I didn't invent penicillin, I just drew people's attention to it and gave it a name.".

Fleming, Cheyne and Flory at the Nobel Prize

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