M2: Antibiotics; Persistence and a Little Luck
How many times have you been sick or injured and realized that it’s not going to get any better on its own?
This episode takes us back nearly 100 years to an accidental discovery that has saved countless lives. The next time you find relief after taking your first or second dose of an antibiotic, you can be thankful for the persistence…and luck…of Alexander Fleming.
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M2: ANTIBIOTICS; PERSISTENCE AND A LITTLE LUCK
HEY EVERYONE… WE ARE STARTING OUR SECOND WEEK, AND I’M EXCITED TO BRING YOU A STORY THAT I THINK ALL OF US CAN APPRECIATE…BECAUSE WE’VE ALL, AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, BENEFITED FROM THIS IN A TIME OF NEED.
THIS IS STORY ABOUT A MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH THAT HAPPENED NEARLY 100 YEARS AGO…BUT AT IT’S CORE…. IT’S ABOUT NOT GIVING UP ON SOMETHING YOU BELIEVE IN….EVEN WHEN NOBODY ELSE SEES IT.
EPISODE
WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE. WE’RE SICK OR INJURED, BUT WE’RE TRYING TO CONVINCE OURSELVES THAT IT HASN’T DEVELOPED INTO A BACTERIAL INFECTION. SO, WE CARRY ON…DOING OUR BEST TO IGNORE IT, UNTIL FINALLY…WE REACH OUR BREAKING POINT…IT’S TIME TO GO SEE A DOCTOR.
THE DOCTOR PRESCRIBES AND ANTIBIOTIC, WE TAKE THE FIRST DOSE, AND A FEW HOURS LATER…ALMOST MAGICALLY, WE CAN FEEL IT KICKING IN….AND SOON, WE’RE BACK ON OUR FEET.
IF YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW THIS, THIS MAGICAL RECOVERY WAS MADE POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF THE PERSISTENCE OF A MODEST PHYSICIAN FROM SCOTLAND NAMED ALEXANDER FLEMING…AND A LITTLE LUCK.
AROUND 1900, WHEN FLEMING WAS OF WORKING AGE, HE WORKED IN A SHIPPING OFFICE. WHEN HIS UNCLE DIED, HE RECEIVED A SMALL INHERITANCE, SO FLEMING DECIDED TO INVEST IN HIS FUTURE AND USE THE MONEY TO PURSUE A MEDICAL EDUCATION. HE GRADUATED FROM MEDICAL SCHOOL WITH HONORS AND ENDED UP IN RESEARCH. AND THEN HIS PLANS CHANGED WHEN WORLD WAR I REQUIRED THAT HE JOIN THE ARMY MEDICAL CORPS AND TEND TO THE WOUNDED. HERE, HE WATCHED MANY SOLDIERS DIE, NOT FROM THEIR WOUNDS, BUT FROM THE ENSUING INFECTIONS. AFTER THE WAR, BECAUSE OF THIS EXPERIENCE, HE FOCUSED HIS RESEARCH ON BACTERIA.
ONE DAY IN THE LAB, WHILE INFECTED WITH A COLD, FLEMING PLACED HIS OWN MUCUS IN A PITRI DISH AND LEFT IT UNATTENDED. NOT KNOWN FOR HIS ORGANIZATIN OR CLEANLINESS, HE FOUND THE PITRI DISH WEEKS LATER AND NOTICED THERE WASN’T BACTERIA GROWING IN THE DISH WHERE THE MUCUS WAS PLACED. THIS LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF LYSOZYME, AN ENZYME WITH WEAK ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES.
HE SHARED THE DISCOVERY, WHICH WAS DULY NOTED BY THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY WITH VERY LITTLE FANFARE, BUT ALEXANDER BELIEVED THIS WOULD LEAD TO SOMETHING BIGGER, SO HE CONTINUED WITH HIS RESEARCH.
IT WAS AUGUST OF 1928, AFTER EIGHT YEARS OF EXPERIMENTS AND NOT LOSING FAITH IN HIS INTUITION, WHEN HE MADE HIS NEXT BREAKTHROUGH. HE WAS HARD AT WORK ONE AFTERNOON, CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS INNOCULATING STAPHYLOCOCCUS BACTERIA ON CULTURE PLATES AND MONITORING THE RESULTS…..HE LEFT THE LAB THAT EVENING FOR A VACATION WITH HIS FAMILY IN SUFFOLK, AND HE FORGOT ABOUT SEVERAL CULTURE PLATES SITTING ON A BENCH IN THE CORNER OF HIS LAB. WHEN HE RETURNED, HE FOUND THE PLATES, AND NOTICED THAT ONE CULTURE WAS CONTAMINATED WITH A FUNGUS….AND THAT AROUND THAT FUNGUS, COLONIES OF THE STAPHYLOCOCCUS BACTERIA HAD BEEN DESTROYED. HIS FAMOUS COMMENT TO HIS ASSISTANT AT THAT MOMENT WAS “HMM…THAT’S FUNNY…”
FLEMMING WENT TO WORK, CONDUCTING FURTHER EXPERIMENTS AND FOUND THAT THE CULTURE BROTH THAT HE FIRST CALLED “MOULD JUICE,” SUCCESSFULLY KILLED A WIDE ARRAY OF BACTERIA AND PATHOGENS.
FLEMING HAD UNKNOWINGLY DISCOVERED THE FIRST ANTIBIOTIC, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS IN HISTORY…IN A SENSE… BY ACCIDENT.
IN MARCH OF 1929 HE NAMED IT “PENNICILLIN” AND PRESENTED HIS FINDINGS TO THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY.
THERE WAS ALMOST NO RESPONSE FROM HIS COLLEAGUES. IN FACT, PEOPLE THOUGHT IT WAS A WASTE OF TIME. FLEMING PERSISTED, WRITING ARTICLE AFTER ARTICLE FOR OVER TEN YEARS. HE DISCOVERED ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE AND WROTE ARTICLES ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF DOSAGE AND TIME, IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE THE ANTIBIOTIC REMAINED EFFECTIVE. STILL, NOBODY SEEMED TO THINK THESE RESULTS WERE WORTH ANY ATTENTION. PENICILLIN WAS ALL BUT BRUSHED UNDER THE RUG.
…THAT WAS, UNTIL 1940, WHEN TWO OXFORD SCIENTISTS, ERNST CHAIN AND HOWARD FLOREY, HAVING READ ABOUT FLEMING’S WORK, AND EAGER TO FIND A DRUG TO FIGHT INFECTION AS WORLD WAR II APPROACHED, PROPOSED A NEW METHOD OF ISOLATING THE SUBSTANCE IN LARGER QUANTITIES. THIS NEW APPROACH WAS SUPPORTED BY BRITISH AND US GOVERNMENTS, WHICH THEN OPENED THE DOOR TO FURTHER TESTS AND EVENTUAL MASS PRODUCTION.
JUST IN TIME FOR WORLD WAR II, PENNICILLIN SAVED THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF ALLIED ARMED FORCES AND HAS SINCE PAVED THE WAY FOR MODERN ANTIBIOTICS. THIS HAS SAVED COUNTLESS LIVES AND ALLOWED ALL OF US, FROM TIME TO TIME, TO GET BACK ON OUR FEET.
AND NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT ALEXANDER FLEMING REFUSING TO LET PEOPLE TELL HIM HE WASN’T WORTH THEIR TIME…WELL, AND…OF COURSE…WITHOUT A LITTLE LUCK…