Alexander Fleming – discoverer of penicillin. One of the hundred most important people of the XNUMXth century

The history of scientific discoveries is full of happy twists of fate. Isaac Newton, sitting under an apple tree and watching the falling fruit, came up with the idea of ​​a theory of gravity; and Wilhelm Röntgen, while playing with a cathode ray tube, saw that the fluorescent screen was lit, even though the lamp was covered with cardboard. A similar legend accompanies the British biochemist Alexander Fleming. Until now, kids in biology lessons are told that they would not have discovered penicillin had it not been for a coincidence.

1. Throughout his life, Fleming repeated that he discovered penicillin by accident
2. His discovery revolutionized medicine and contributed to its enormous progress in the XNUMXth century.
3. The culmination of Fleming’s scientific achievements is the Nobel Prize awarded to him in 1945.
4. You can find more such stories on the Onet homepage.

Who was Alexander Fleming?

Alexander Fleming was born in 1881 as the third of four children of a Scottish farmer. At the age of 13, he moved to London to live with his older brother Thomas, who later persuaded him to enroll in medicine. However, before he began his studies, he worked for four years in a shipping office. When his uncle John died, Alexander, his two brothers and sister inherited the estate. The future Nobel laureate devoted his part to further education. He enrolled at St Mary’s Medical School at the University of London. He graduated with honors in 1906.

Although he was educated as a doctor, in 1900 he began his military career. He first served as a gunner in the London Scottish Regiment of the Territorial Army. The captain of the St Mary’s shooting club, who wanted to keep Fleming in college, persuaded him to pursue a research career and introduced him to Sir Almroth Wright, a passionate club member and vaccine research pioneer, who agreed to take him under his wing.

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Alexander Fleming: from wound healing to the discovery of lysozyme

When World War I broke out, Fleming was serving as captain in the military medical corps. Thanks to his impressive credentials, he went to France, where he worked in field hospitals.

It was during his stay on the Western Front that he first became interested in the study of antibacterial substances. As a military physician, he was well aware that sepsis was responsible for the greatest number of deaths in wounded soldiers. In those days, antiseptics were the only line of defense against wound infection, but they were unreliable. In an article in The Lancet, Fleming discusses anaerobic bacteria that reproduce in deep wounds despite the use of antiseptics. It also concludes that wounds should be assessed in terms of their severity and the cleanliness of the wound should be prioritized. Although Sir Almroth Wright followed Fleming’s conclusions, most doctors still treat patients by traditional methods.

Although his research was initially disregarded, the Scottish doctor was not discouraged. In 1922, he discovered lysozyme, an enzyme with weak antimicrobial properties.

Apparently, this discovery was born from … a cold. Fleming transferred his nasopharyngeal mucus to a Petri dish (a round laboratory vessel with a wide, flat bottom and low side walls), placed it on a messy desk, and forgot about it to death. During this time, bacterial colonies were multiplying on the dish, but the area that had been inoculated with mucilage remained clean. When Fleming saw the vessel two weeks later, he decided to investigate further. He discovered a substance in the mucus that inhibited the growth of bacteria and called it lysozyme. Later it turned out that the substance is also found in tears, saliva, skin, hair and nails. And when he was able to isolate larger amounts of lysozyme from the egg white, he found that the enzyme was only effective against a small number of harmless bacteria.

Penicillin, which is a substance that kills bacteria

In 1928, Flemnig began a series of experiments with common staphylococci. And again, the legend has it that his breakthrough discovery would never have happened had it not been for the doctor’s sloppiness. The laboratory where he worked was somewhat “neglected” and hence one of the staphylococcal cultures in an open vessel near an open window was contaminated with mold spores. Fleming, not knowing about it, went on a family vacation. After a few weeks’ vacation, he noticed that the bacteria near the mold colonies were dying. He quickly singled out the compound that caused this “funny”, as he called it, effect, and identified it as Penicillum praktum. He found that it is effective against all gram-positive pathogens responsible for diseases such as scarlet fever, pneumonia, gonorrhea, meningitis and diphtheria.

In 1929, he published the results of his research proving that some bacteria, such as staphylococcus aureus, are sensitive to the action of a substance produced by the Penicillum notepad mold strain, called penicillin.

Later Fleming said:

When I got up at dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly had no plans to revolutionize medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic. But I guess that’s what I did.

Initially, Fleming himself was skeptical about his findings, he was unsure whether penicillin would be effective in treating bacterial infections, and the scientific community received his work with moderate enthusiasm. The main reason for distrust was the difficulty in isolating larger amounts of penicillin and mass-producing the drug.

It wasn’t until 1940, when he was considering retiring, that two Oxford scientists – Australian Howard Florey and Nazi Germany refugee Ernst Chain – became interested in penicillin.

Penicillin heals frontal wounds and … embarrassing diseases

The first person to be treated with penicillin was policeman Albert Alexander, who developed a bacterial infection after scratching his face with a rose thorn. Alexander was hospitalized with abscesses on his face, and the doctors had to remove his eye. Ethel Florey drew her husband’s attention to Alexander’s case. Dr. Florey and Dr. Chain were already working on the medical uses of penicillin, trying to isolate enough of it to be studied in humans. They needed a patient in a life-threatening condition; Alexander met these requirements. He was given an injection of 160 mg (200 units) of penicillin. Over the course of a day, his condition improved, his appetite returned, and the infection began to subside. Unfortunately, in Florey’s lab, a small amount of penicillin was extracted, and although attempts were made to recover it from Alexander’s urine, the drug ran out. The disease came back and the policeman died.

The situation improved when the US and UK governments committed money for research.

As early as during World War II, penicillin was produced by the American pharmaceutical industry as a tool to fight infections. By 1945, Americans were producing 6,8 trillion doses – just over 4. kg of the drug per year. Penicillin was widely used in the treatment of wounded soldiers of the Allied Forces. She certainly saved thousands from death from gangrene and sepsis, but it is believed that the greatest benefit she brought to the army was increasing its combat capacity by treating… gonorrhea.

During the invasion of Sicily, when penicillin was still scarce, the British considered reserving the drug exclusively for the wounded and leaving the “scoundrels” with the consequences of their “indiscretions”. The case was based on Churchill himself, who said that the antibiotic should be given to all those in need, because it serves to gain “military advantage”.

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Alexander Fleming, despite his publicity, remained quiet and modest

In recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements, in 1943 Fleming was elected a member of the Royal Society (acting as the British Academy of Sciences), in 1944 King George VI granted him the title of nobility, and in 1945, Fleming, Florey and Chain won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. On the other hand, in 1948, the magazine “Time” included Fleming on the list of the hundred most important people of the twentieth century.

Interestingly, the scientist did not cease to emphasize the accidental nature of his discovery. He would say modestly: “Sometimes there is something that is not sought. Nature produced penicillin, I just discovered it«.

His contemporaries described him as a quiet and patient person, disliking showing emotions. He also avoided publicity, was often so silent and inscrutable that even his wife and closest friends found it difficult to judge his mood. Despite this restraint, he knew how to be charming and gentle with his relatives at the same time.

In 1915, Fleming married Sarah Marion McElroy, an Irish nurse. After nine years, the spouses had a son, Robert, who also became a doctor. Fleming’s death after 34 years of living together deeply touched Fleming. He grew old overnight and gave himself up to work, spending long hours behind the closed doors of the laboratory. However, in 1953, he remarried to Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas.

Alexander Fleming died suddenly at home on March 11, 1955. For several weeks he had been suffering from what he thought was an upset stomach. When nausea began, his wife called the GP, but Fleming said a home visit was not necessary. Meanwhile, after a few minutes, there was a heart attack. Pisano: “He died as he wanted; quietly, without gradual loss of physical or mental fitness and without even bothering a doctor ». His cremated ashes were placed in the Cathedral of St. Paul in London.

The discoverer of penicillin predicted antibiotic resistance

Fleming’s discovery laid the foundations for XNUMXth-century medical advances. Postoperative survival rates have risen sharply, as so far the most risky were not so much surgical procedures as subsequent infections. In addition, organ transplants that were not possible before have turned into standard procedures, and many bacterial infections and diseases that had so far taken their death toll have become just as treatable as the common cold.

Interestingly, Fleming himself predicted the challenges facing antibiotics; realized that “superbugs” would emerge and antibiotic resistance. He realized early on that bacteria could develop resistance to penicillin and the like, so it was important to use antibiotics appropriately and only as a last line of defense.

As in recent years we have become aware that antibiotics are not a miracle cure for all ailments, modern medicine is working on new ways to treat infections using innovative techniques. In addition, in some cases, improved therapies used before the antibiotic era, such as photodynamic antibacterial therapy, are making a comeback.