Most Important Drug Discoveries Ever Made

Modern-day advances have allowed scientists to develop methods to control pathogens. The more common methods include the use of antiseptics, antibiotics, and vaccines. By definition, antiseptics are chemicals used to kill pathogens. A few widespread antiseptics include soap, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol. Antiseptics are primarily used for the external destruction of pathogens, while antibiotics and vaccines target internal pathogens. Nevertheless, there are and can be difficulties concerning the use of antibiotics. “As antibiotic use has become more common, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have evolved.” This resistance due to evolution is called antibiotic resistance. It results in the antibiotics having no effect whatsoever on the bacteria, rendering the antibiotics useless. When antibiotic resistance occurs, scientists must resume their search to create a new medicine to can kill the mutant bacteria.

Drug therapy relies on the principle of selective toxicity, where the effects of the drug are only harmful towards the foreign parasite and not at all to the host. By comparing the effects of different drugs on various parasitic organisms we are able to distinguish the type of disease or infection that is present as well as the mechanism of action that takes place by each drug in question. The drugs may function by interacting with enzymes such as transpeptidase and thymidylate synthetase, for example Penicillin and 5-FU function respectively. The effectiveness can be quantified by measuring the zones of inhibition created by the drug on the plate of the bacteria or fungus. This is the area where there is no growth due to the action of the drug. The discovery that the Micrococcus-luteus is classed as a bacteria was made apparent due to Penicillin’s success in inhibiting it’s growth. The action of the Amphotericin solely on the Pythium, gives reason to believe that it can be grouped with fungal growths.

Antibiotics, composed of microorganisms such as streptomycin and penicillin, kill other infectious microorganisms in the human body. At one point, antibiotics were considered to have “basically wiped out infection in the United States”, but due to their overuse and evolutionary

The aim of this investigation was to find out which antiseptics were most effective at preventing the growth of bacteria.

All anti-infection agents utilized as a part of human treatment since the beginning of the anti-infection agents time in the mid 1900s can be partitioned into three unmistakable classifications as indicated by how they were eventually produced on substantial scale. These arrangements take after. Natural products: mixes made specifically by huge scale aging of microscopic organisms or parasites. Semi-synthetic antibacterial: compounds manufactured by chemical synthesis using as starting material a natural product. Fully synthetic antibacterial: exacerbates that are fabricated by completely manufactured courses (Wright, Seiple, and Myers, 2014).

Chemical antimicrobial agents are chemical compounds capable of either inhibiting the growth of microorganisms or killing them outright. Those which are taken internally to alleviate the symptoms of or promote healing from disease are called chemotherapeutic drugs, and among these is a class of compounds called antibiotics. In order for a chemotherapeutic drug to be classed as an antibiotic, it must be produced by a microorganism such as bacterium or fungus or at least derived from a chemical produced by one. It must also be capable of killing or inhibiting the growth of other microorganisms and of doing so when taken in very small quantities.

Antibiotics have played an essential role in the fight against diseases and infections since the 1940’s. Antibiotics are a leading cause for the rise of global average life expectancy in the 20th and 21st century. They have greatly reduced illnesses and deaths due to diseases. With the introductions of antibiotics in the 1940’s, like penicillin into clinical practice, formally deadly illnesses became immediately curable and saved thousands of lives (Yim 2006). Antibiotic use has been beneficial and when prescribed and taken correctly their effects on patients are exceedingly valuable. However, because these drugs have been used so widely and for such a long period of time the bacteria that the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted,

found that both the drug and the bacteria use enzymes as their defense and attack

Antibiotics are important for the treatment of bacterial infections, and it is therefore important to know how different antibiotic works in different contexts. Different kinds of bacteria are affected to different degrees by different antibiotics, and it may therefore be useful to know which antibiotic that attacks the bacteria. The purpose of this report is to analyze how antibiotics including Chloramphenicol and Ampicillin affect the growth rate of bacteria Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Which antibiotic is the most effective or least effective in inhibiting the growth rate of these two bacteria respectively?

Antibiotics were introduced to people in 1929, which could restrain the normal growth of the other bacteria called antimicrobial activity, was found by British scientist Alexander Fleming by coincidence. Then scientists used antibiotics, to cure injured soldiers and got great success during the World War. With the efforts of many scientists in the past half of the century, thousand kinds of antibiotics are found, which could be natural, semi-synthetic or synthetic, and many of them are used in medical field successfully.

These mutations, no matter what process that has led to their occurrence, block the action of antibiotics by interfering with their mechanism of action (1). Currently, antibiotics attack bacteria through one of two mechanisms. In both mechanisms the antibiotic enters the microbe and interferes with production of the components needed to form new bacterial cells. Some antibiotics act on the cell membrane, causing increased permeability and leakage of cell contents. Other antibiotics interfere with protein synthesis in cells. They block one or more of the steps involved in the transformation of nucleic acids into proteins.

Several antibiotics known to man have been already discovered since the 1940’s, in which most of it are obtained from natural sources (Chaeychomsri et al., 2010). Synthesizing large amounts of antibiotics nowadays have given way to the bacteria, as well as viruses to develop immunity to a certain antibiotic strain, thus poses a threat of bacterial resistance, as these bacterial and viral species tend to become resistant to several antibacterial agents as a result of chromosomal and genetic mutation and adaptation to the agent (Neu, 1992). Due to this setback, many scientists have also initiated solutions that could be derived from natural sources, which led to the exploration and research on several animals,

Antibiotics have been around since 1928 when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Penicillin was a new drug that could kill bacterial invaders without harming the human body. Chemist Paul Ehrlich called it a “magic bullet”. In his book The Antibiotic Paradox, Dr. Scott Levy says Penicillin earned the accolade “miracle drug” because of “its unique and rapid control

Antibiotics are one of the secondary metabolites produced by some fungi and bacteria that selectively inhibit the growth of another. Secondary metabolites have no role in the growth of the organisms and, indeed, may have little or no primary function within the organism. They are produced when the organism enters the stationary phase, once the initial phase of rapid growth has declined. At the stationary phase, the organisms are with the slowed growth rate, caused by depletion of nutrients, or accumulation of side products may induce their metabolic shift to the production of the secondary metabolites. In order to obtain the maximum yield of the antibiotics, it is necessary to ensure that some nutrients in the medium are limited and the organism

The diseases which were once thought to be incurable do find treatments or cure in due course of time with the progress of human research expertise. With the progress of science and technology new and improved drugs are found thus change in nature as well as human development appears as the course of life. In keeping with this, the Hathi Committee has held that a fixed or any constant number of inventions or research formulations are not sufficient to meet all the needs of time and nature.