Sulfonamide Drug
The sulfonamide, or sulfa, drugs are a family of drugs which halt the growth of bacteria. Their discovery paved the way for cheap and effective treatment of frequently fatal bacterial infections, like pneumonia. Sulfanilamide, effective in the treatment of infections caused by Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Salmonella and Coccidia, is the parent compound from which many other sulfa drugs are derived. The most common use of sulfa drugs today is in the treatment of urinary tract infections.
Before 1932, no synthetic chemicals existed for the treatment of bacterial infections. A new therapeutic era was ushered in by the German chemist Gerhard Domagk when he began a systematic search for chemical substances which would kill bacteria within the human body. Domagk served as Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Pathology and Bacteriology at I.G. Farbenindustrie, a German dye cartel, where he tested the pharmacological properties of dyes synthesized by his colleagues. Certain dyes--those containing a sulfonamide group--seemed to bind tightly to wool fabrics, indicating an affinity for protein molecules. Because bacteria are protein, Domagk reasoned that these dyes might fasten to bacteria, inhibiting or killing them. In 1932, he discovered that a dye called Prontosil controlled streptococcal infections in mice and staphylococcal infections in rabbits with no damage to the animals.
I.G. Farbenindustrie began clinical tests of the effects of Prontosil on infections in humans. Domagk had an unexpected opportunity to test the dye's effectiveness close to home, when a needle-prick in his lab accidentally infected his young daughter with streptococcus. Uncertain of the outcome, he administered Prontosil, and she made a rapid recovery. It became clear that Prontosil had the ability to control streptococcus infections in humans, and these results were published in 1935. Prontosil received further publicity in 1936 when the dying Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., the son of President Roosevelt, recovered from streptococcal infection after he was treated with Prontosil.
In 1936, the French chemists Jacques (1897-1977) and Thérèse Trefouel (1921-), a husband-and-wife team, and Daniele Bovet broke Prontosil down and isolated its effective fragment: sulfanilamide, the parent sulfa compound. They found that it is this component, and not the dye itself, which kills the bacteria. Sulfanilamide is a sulfonamide formed in the human body as a result of the cleavage of Prontosil during the metabolic process, and it acts by competing with the metabolites and nutritive substances of bacteria, inhibiting the bacteria's multiplication and growth. Combined with the body's own defense mechanisms, this process serves to control the infections caused by these bacteria. Over 5,000 sulfa drugs have been prepared and tested, but because bacteria become resistant to most of them with repeated exposure, fewer than 20 have been found which have lasting therapeutic value. Sulfa drugs are administered orally or by injection.
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, but it was the wide success of sulfanilamide that pioneered the field of chemotherapy (drugs used to treat disease caused by an invading organism) and led to the development of penicillin as an effective antibiotic. The advent of antibiotics has decreased the need for sulfa drugs, but they are still useful in the treatment of streptococcal infections, urinary tract infections and ulcerative colitis. In addition, sulfanilamide is still used in veterinary medicine.
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