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History of Antibiotics Research

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How to Overcome the Antibiotic Crisis

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology ((CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 398))

Abstract

For thousands of years people were delivered helplessly to various kinds of infections, which often reached epidemic proportions and have cost the lives of millions of people. This is precisely the age since mankind has been thinking of infectious diseases and the question of their causes. However, due to a lack of knowledge, the search for strategies to fight, heal, and prevent the spread of communicable diseases was unsuccessful for a long time. It was not until the discovery of the healing effects of (antibiotic producing) molds, the first microscopic observations of microorganisms in the seventeenth century, the refutation of the abiogenesis theory, and the dissolution of the question “What is the nature of infectious diseases?” that the first milestones within the history of antibiotics research were set. Then new discoveries accelerated rapidly: Bacteria could be isolated and cultured and were identified as possible agents of diseases as well as producers of bioactive metabolites. At the same time the first synthetic antibiotics were developed and shortly thereafter, thousands of synthetic substances as well as millions of soil borne bacteria and fungi were screened for bioactivity within numerous microbial laboratories of pharmaceutical companies. New antibiotic classes with different targets were discovered as on assembly line production. With the beginning of the twentieth century, many of the diseases which reached epidemic proportions at the time—e.g., cholera, syphilis, plague, tuberculosis, or typhoid fever, just to name a few, could be combatted with new discovered antibiotics. It should be considered that hundred years ago the market launch of new antibiotics was significantly faster and less complicated than today (where it takes 10–12 years in average between the discovery of a new antibiotic until the launch). After the first euphoria it was quickly realized that bacteria are able to develop, acquire, and spread numerous resistance mechanisms. Whenever a new antibiotic reached the market it did not take long until scientists observed the first resistant germs. Since the marketing of the first antibiotic there is a neck-on-neck race between scientists who discover natural or develop semisynthetic and synthetic bioactive molecules and bacteria, which have developed resistance mechanisms. The emphasis of this chapter is to give an overview of the history of antibiotics research. The situation within the pre-antibiotic era as well as in the early antibiotic era will be described until the Golden Age of Antibiotics will conclude this time travel. The most important antibiotic classes, information about their discovery, activity spectrum, mode of action, resistance mechanisms, and current application will be presented.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This deviates from the modern definition of antibiotics, but is a literal citation of Waksman’s concept.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Christoph Friedrich, Bildarchiv des Instituts für Geschichte der Pharmazie der Universität Marburg (Germany), Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kück and Dr. Julia Böhm, Ruhr-University Bochum, Dr. Heinke Jäger, Restoration Ecologist Charles Darwin Foundation Puerta Ayora, Galápagos (Ecuador), and PD Dr. Joachim Wink for providing the nice pictures and Dr. Rolf Jansen for examination of the chemical structures.

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  1. Department Microbial Drugs and German Center for Infection Research, Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstraße 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Kathrin I. Mohr

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Correspondence to Kathrin I. Mohr .

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  1. Department Microbial Drugs, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany

    Marc Stadler

  2. Dept. Molecular Infection Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany

    Petra Dersch

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Mohr, K.I. (2016). History of Antibiotics Research. In: Stadler, M., Dersch, P. (eds) How to Overcome the Antibiotic Crisis . Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 398. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/82_2016_499

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