All Medicinal chemistry articles – Page 6
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ResourceOn This Day – Aug 31 : First chemotherapeutic drug
German scientist Paul Ehrlich coined the term ‘chemotherapy’ to describe what he called a ‘magic bullet’: a substance that could find and kill infectious microbes without harming the host. Chemotherapy still plays a very important role in cancer treatment today.
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On This Day - Mar 30 : The first anaesthetic used
American surgeon Crawford Long encouraged his patient to inhale ether during a medical procedure to remove a neck tumour. This marked the beginning of the use of anaesthesia during surgeries.
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On This Day - Mar 27 : Paul Lauterbur died
He was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2003 for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI scans use nuclear magnetic resonance to see inside the body and have revolutionised medical diagnosis.
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On This Day - Nov 25 : Adolph Kolbe died
He discovered a method for the electrolysis of the salts of fatty acids, known as Kolbe electrolysis. He also identified the Kolbe synthesis reaction, which is a method of making salicylic acid – the main component of Aspirin.
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On This Day - Dec 24 : Medical use of radioisotope
American physician and phyicist John Lawrence used phosphorus-32 (32P) to treat a 28 year old woman with chronic leukaemia at Berkeley, California. He became the father of nuclear medicine.
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On This Day – Jul 22 : Selman Waksman was born
He coined the term ‘antibiotic’ and discovered streptomycin, the first drug that was effective against tuberculosis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for this work.
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On This Day - Oct 19 : Samuel Guthrie died
He discovered chloroform (trichloromethane) by distilling chloride of lime (a mixture of calcium hydroxide, chloride and hypochlorite) with alcohol in a copper barrel. He found that this had properties that made it a mild anaesthetic, which he used in amputations.
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On This Day - Oct 15 : First contraceptive pill
The pill was a steroid hormone, norethindrone, developed by Carl Djerassi and co-workers at Syntex in Mexico City. Around 100 million women worldwide now take contraceptive pills, which are approximately 99% effective against pregnancy.
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On This Day - Oct 03 : Charles Pedersen was born
He shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of crown ethers. These are a group of compounds that can “recognize” each other and choose which other molecules to form complexes, much like the behaviour of molecules found in living organisms.
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On This Day - Oct 01 : Thalidomide was marketed
This notorious drug was marketed as a mild sleeping pill that was safe even for pregnant women. It wasn’t until 1962 that the severe side effects were revealed, where it had caused the development of malformed limbs in babies.
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On This Day - Jan 11 : Thompson trialled insulin
On the verge of death, the 14 year old diabetic agreed to the trial. Insulin was first discovered by Banting, Best and Macleod in 1921, but it was Collip’s work on the purification of insulin that enabled it to be used clinically.
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Soundbite
Vancomycin
Simon Cotton takes a look at those compounds that find themselves in the news or relate to our everyday lives.
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Ruthenium compounds as anticancer agents
New ruthenium-based compounds with fewer and less severe side effects, could replace longstanding platinum-based anticancer drugs
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Radium - a key element in early cancer treatment
An early example of how blue skies research by Pierre and Marie Curie led to the treatment of previously incurable cancers
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Synthetic vaccines
The design of synthetic vaccines offers a more systematic approach to vaccine therapy for many illnesses, including cancer, and even drug addiction
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