Science is a field that is unpredictable and challenging, yet fascinating. Throughout their careers, scientists have come face-to-face with successes, failures and rejections. They have put great amounts of dedication into projects and may have even experienced a light bulb moment when identifying a solution after working on a long problem. But imagine stumbling upon a miraculous medical discovery, as a total accident through pure luck. This situation is how you could describe the discovery of penicillin by Dr. Alexander Fleming in 1928.
Fleming was an esteemed bacteriologist who worked at St. Mary’s Hospital in England (Fleming, 1929). His research involved examining the nature of staphylococci in Petri dishes. One night, his assistant was placing the dishes away to incubate but she had neglected to properly cover a couple of the dishes (Böttcher, 1963). As a result, this allowed airborne fungus spores to makes its way into the broth contained in the Petri dishes (Böttcher, 1963). The following day, Fleming noticed one of the dishes contained the bacteria in addition to areas of clear agar with green fungus, as seen in Figure 1 (Wainwright, 1987). Some scientists would not think twice about this contamination error in their research, however what made Fleming a great scientist was his curiosity, strong observation skills and passion of understanding how things work. Fleming documented that it has appeared as though the cocci disappeared and idea of life inhibiting life was intriguing to him and motivated him to study the fungus (Böttcher, 1963).
Initially, antibiotics were not thought of to be used on humans until the 1940’s when Ernst Chain and Howard Florey experimented with this compound (Nicholas and Davies, 2012). In the 1950’s to 1960’s, scientists were focused on understanding the molecular mechanism of the drug and understanding its chemical structure. Beta-lactam antibiotics, such as penicillin, are capable of inhibiting the growth of bacteria as they target the synthesis of the peptidoglycan, the cell wall. During the normal synthesis of peptidoglycan, peptide chains are cross-linked with each other to form a strong structural cell wall using penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) (Nicholas and Davies, 2012). Beta-lactam antibiotics will react with PBPs to form penicilloyl-enzyme complex which prevents the PBPs from producing crosslinks therefore the cell wall loses its structure and lyses (Nicholas and Davies, 2012).
Fleming’s serendipitous discovery has lead to many benefits in medicine and food production. However, antibiotic resistance has recently become an increasing public health issue as these industries are overusing antibacterial products. Scientists continue to search for and create new antibiotics and public health experts push governments to develop policies that regulate the distribution of antibiotics (Ontario Medical Association, 2013). Although the discovery of antibiotics has greatly contributed to science, it is crucial that we must use them wisely.
References
Böttcher, H.M., 1963. Miracle Drugs. Heinemann: London.
Fleming, A., 1929. On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of a Penicillium, with Special Reference to Their Use in the Isolation of B. Influenza. The British Journal of Experimental Pathology. 10(3): 226-236. Available at: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2048009/pdf/brjexppathol00255-0037.pdf>
Nicholas, R., Davies, C., 2012. Structural Mechanisms of β-Lactam Antibiotic Resistance in Penicillin-Binding Proteins. In: T. Dougherty, M. Pucci, ed. 2012. Antibiotic Discovery and Development. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. Ch.11. Available at: <http://download.springer.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/static/pdf/4/bok%253A978-1-4614-1400-1.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Fbook%2F10.1007%2F978-1-4614-1400-1&token2=exp=1489461251~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F4%2Fbok%25253A978-1-4614-1400-1.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Fbook%252F10.1007%252F978-1-4614-1400-1*~hmac=20a248b0413f407206dd22a6c27fc833ea5c892c621685ad4f62525
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Ontario Medical Association, 2013. When Antibiotics Stop Working: Policy Paper. [online] Toronto: Canadian Electronic Library/desLibris. Available at: <http://www.deslibris.ca/ID/237015>
Wainwright, M., 1987. The History of the Therapeutic Use of Crude Penicillin. Medical History. 31, pp. 41-50. Available at: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1139683/pdf/medhist00068-0045.pdf>
Comments
9 Responses to “When Life Gives You Mold, Discover Penicillin”
Hi everyone,
I came across some of this information as I was researching for my History of Science EP. This is slightly off topic of what I’m doing for EP but it is good background information and I found it interesting so I thought I would share it here. Thanks for taking the time to read my post and I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.
Cheers,
Aileen
Hi Aileen,
Neat post! I think you did a great job covering the topic from a historical perspective, while still making sure the science component of the post was strong. Your use of primary literature here is also wonderful – it is very neat to see papers from 1929! I do have a few suggestions for you:
1. Perhaps consider rewording your first sentence. At the moment, it reads a bit strangely. Especially since this is the first thing readers will read, I think altering the phrasing would help it have more of an impact.
2. Consider rewording the third sentence of your first paragraph so that it reads “They have put great amounts of dedication into projects…”
3. It may be helpful to include a figure describing the binding process you discuss in your third paragraph. Seeing the structure of these molecules will help make it easier to visualize how cross-linking becomes inhibited.
Overall, a job well done. Thanks for a great read!
Good luck,
Julia Pantaleo
Hi Aileen,
Really enjoyed the post, I just have a few minor suggestions.
– Perhaps reword your first sentence to read “unpredictable and challenging, yet fascinating”
– Pluralize career in the second sentence of the first paragraph
– In the fourth paragraph, you might want to use a comma, or use the word “through” instead of though
– In the first sentence of the third paragraph, for clarity it might be useful to indicate what compound you are referring to
Overall I found it to be a really interesting read!
– Amory
Hi Aileen,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post, and here are a few of my own suggestion.
1. In the sentence “During the normal synthesis of peptidoglycan, peptide chains are cross-linked with each other which forms a strong structural”, you could switch the word “which” with “to”.
2. Refer to the figure in your post it makes it makes the picture match up with your writing. . You could start a sentence with “As seen in figure………”
Other than that great blog post.
Hi Julia,
Thanks for the feedback. I will try to search for a diagram of PBPs that illustrates the molecular mechanism of how antibiotics work.
Take care,
Aileen
Hey Amory,
I’m happy to hear that you found my post interesting. Thanks for the suggestions, they were very helpful!
Aileen
Hi Cory,
Thank your for your feedback. I have made the appropriate changes.
Kind regards,
Aileen
Hi Aileen,
This is great!
Dear Audrey,
I appreciate your enthusiasm regarding my blog post. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Best wishes,
Aileen