Abstract
THE remarkable curative effects on certain types of bacterial infection of drugs of the sulphonamide group1 immediately opens up a new field of research into the mode of action of these drugs. In a bacteriological examination of organisms isolated from the peritoneal cavity during a course of treatment of an experimental pneumococcal infection in mice by ‘M and B 693’ (2-[p-aminobenzenesulphonamido]-pyridine), Whitby2 reported that the “capsules became swollen and crenated and eventually disappeared”. Hence it might seem that the drug has a direct destructive action on the pneumococcus polysaccharide-capsular material. It is well known that the capsule is a defence mechanism of virulent bacteria and, for example, in pneumococcal infections, is probably the decisive factor in determining the fate of the bacteria in the host. Any destructive action on capsular material by sulphonamide drugs would be comparable to the effects of the polysaccharide-splitting enzymes studied by Avery, Dubos and others3. In this work it has been clearly demonstrated that denudation of the organism of its capsule leaves the cell exposed to the phagocytic action of the body and usually the attack of pnemuonia is repelled.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Whitby, L. E. H., Lancet, 235, 6011 (1938).
Whitby, L. E. H., Lancet, 235, 1210 (1938).
White, B., "The Biology of Pneumococcus", chap. ix.
McIntosh, J., and Whitby, L. E. H., Lancet, 236, 431 (1939).
Hucker and Pederson, Cent. Bact., II, 85, 65 (1931). Allison and Hoover, J. Bact., 27, 561 (1934). Thorne and Walker, Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., 41, 63 (1934). Carruthers and Cooper, Biochem. J., 30, 1001 (1936). Stacey and Youd, Biochem. J., 32, 1943 (1938).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
STACEY, M., SCHLÜCHTERER, E. Sulphonamide Drugs and Pneumococcus Capsular Polysaccharides. Nature 143, 724 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143724a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143724a0
This article is cited by
-
Über Bakterienschädigung Durch Sulfonamidwirkung
Klinische Wochenschrift (1948)
-
Phagocytose und Pharmaca
Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten (1947)
-
Untersuchungen über die Wirkungsweise der Sulfonamide
Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten (1940)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.