Way back in the dark ages, when I was a grad student, we were still finding new antibiotics. And, contrary to your envisioned scenario, most of them were not being found by scientists creating various compounds in the lab.
No, antibiotics have been around for millennia. But, way, way back, no one knew the diseases were caused by microbes. But, shamans and healers knew that plant extracts and some molds would treat diseases. Imagine placing moldy bread on a wound. But, that was what was done in the ancient world.
Dr. Paul Ehrlich, one of my childhood heroes, discerned that some chemical dyes tainted some microbial cells, but not all of them. Ergo, some substances must be able to kill some microbes, without harming other cells. He then demonstrated that science entails trial and error by testing 606 compounds before he identified arsphenamine would work against syphillus (1909). (It was aptly called Compound 606 at first.)
It was Dr. Alexander Fleming who unintentionally discovered penicillin was capable of fighting off microbes about 20 years later (1928). It seems that the bacteria he was studying couldn’t grow in the presence of Penicillium. (It was our predecessor firm that was entitled to make the first batches of penicillin using semi-solid fermentation. We used this same production process to mass produce many of the microbes we developed over the years.) But, it was Dr. Selman Waksman who coined the term ‘antibiotic’….and discovered 20 or do of these remarkable compounds.
Most of the easily found antibiotics have since been isolated and subjected to mass production. But, we need new ones because we’ve over-prescribed them, used them for animal feed, or had humans simply not complete their directed course of treatment. Each of these situations afford microbes the ability to develop resistance to these drugs.
However, a new antibiotic may have just been isolated. Dr. Julian Davies (Univ. British Columbia), along with his students Shekooh Behroozian (PhD candidate) and Dr. Sarah Svensson (postdoc), were invited to help refine an antimicrobial used by aboriginal peoples from Kisameet Basin, about 250 miles north of Vancouver. Kisameet Glacial Clay, Inc. had obtained the rights for use of the clay in cosmetics. But, Lawry Lund, the CEO of Kisameet, was fairly certain he recalled that the clay possessed antimicrobial properties, too. So, Kisameet reached out to Davies.
About 70 years ago (1946), Drs. Ure and Harris (UBC) reported in the Bulletin of the Vancouver Medical Association about the curative properties of the clay (Volume 22:230-37). At the time, the clay was available as Ray-Vite, along with a water-based formulation termed AbsorVite (to be taken orally). In 1952, Dr. Ernst Hauser (MIT) further described the physical properties of the clay, denoting that the aboriginal Heiltsuk group had been using it for generations. (These references are NOT available on the web, predating its development by decades.)
This is why Davies’ team tested sterilized clay dust against various ESKAPE bacteria, obtained from two different hospitals (St. Paul’s and Vancouver), as well as extracts from the UBC wastewater treatment facility. Within 24 hours, the microbial populations were non-detectable, except for E. faecium, which eradication required 48 hours. The controls, which were treated with water had population die-off, but they were not eradicated.
There still are years of work until this clay becomes a finished product. But, given these initial results, we can expect some pretty directed research.
Why we can’t keep destroying our environment – we may be also destroying a great cure. https://t.co/9uXo0sN0iG via @Adjuvancy
How nice to finally circle back to old time cures. I know a survivor of MRSA who needed the “last chance antibiotic” for that condition several years ago and I believe that antibiotic is starting to fail. Few of us know a world without antibiotics but more of us may be finding out.
Thanks for the visit and comment, Alana.
Yes, we need to examine all those “medical miracles” of old, to see what antibiotic properties they may have!
I think I remember seeing recently on the news that this resistance to anitbiotics is becoming a real problem, because the research for new ones hasn’t been pursued keenly enough? This sounds like good news then!
The Great Gordino recently posted..No Man Ever Steps In The Same River Twice…
It’s not just that we are not finding new antibiotics, Gordon.
It’s that we are not using the current ones we have properly. We stop the regimen because we feel better, even though the microbes are rampant in our bodies. So, they can learn how to adapt to the presence of the antimicrobials. It’s that we prescribe the drugs when it is a viral infection (for which it does nothing). Or, worse yet, we feed them to the animals, who excrete them (almost hwole) to the rivers and lakes- where the microbes can learn to adapt…
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