In the history of Biology and Medicine, several discoveries stood out for their importance in order to save lives, as is the case of the process that allowed the development of vaccines. Another of these landmark discoveries was the development of antibiotics, drugs that promote the killing of bacteria.
In the case of penicillin, chance allowed the right person, at the right time, to have the sensitivity to observe, in an event of loss of research material, the opportunity to discover something new.
This story took place in 1928, when Alexander Fleming, then 47 years old, returning from his vacation, noted that he had forgotten some plates with cultures from Staphylococcus aureus on your laboratory bench. However, something happened and caught the attention of that bacteriologist: the bacteria that were in plaques with fungus had died. Fleming, instigated by the observation, set out to work on that new subject and thus isolated the fungus on other plates. He found that this fungus, which was from the gender penicillium, synthesized some substance with bactericidal action.
We must not think that with this discovery everything was resolved. From it, a search was started to identify the types of fungi of the genus peniculum that had this bactericidal characteristic and also know which strains of bacteria were sensitive to this particular substance.
Initially, Fleming's research did not really excite the scientific community, since several different works were already being carried out to obtain results against the harmful action of certain bacteria. Fleming's work was just another one.
Ten years later, with the beginning of World War II, the development of medicines that combat infectious processes, which had already killed thousands of injured in the 1st War. Thus, in 1940, two scientists, Florey and Chain, managed to develop a technique that allowed for the production of penicillin, which presented itself as the ideal substance and received strong encouragement financial.
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Penicillin, through its bactericidal action, allowed for a significant reduction in war deaths and, in a way, inaugurated a new phase in medicine: the antibiotic phase. From that moment on and with the end of the war, research on new forms of production and on the action of other organisms were boosted, reaching the level of development we are currently experiencing, with the production of antibiotics semi-synthetics.
The penicillin discovery event stood out due to the sum of factors that made it even more interesting, such as:
- The fungus that contaminated the plaque forgotten by Fleming is one of the species of the genus penicillium more efficient in bactericidal action;
- The growth of the fungus and bacteria occurred slowly, a fact influenced by atypical climatic factors that occurred in England that year;
- The fact that Fleming proposed to analyze the lost material, not eliminating it immediately, as was to be expected.
Penicillin has its antibiotic action by inhibiting the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall, causing loss of the bacteria's protective structure and mechanical stability, which causes the membrane to rupture plasmatic.
Fabricio Alves Ferreira
Graduated in Biology
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FERREIRA, Fabricio Alves. "Fleming and Penicillin"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biologia/fleming-penicilina.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
