Who discovered penicillin in the USSR. An important discovery of the century - the invention of penicillin

Hundreds human lives saved during the use of antibiotics in medical practice. The discovery of penicillin made it possible to easily save people from diseases that until the beginning of the 20th century were considered incurable.

Medicine before the invention of penicillin

For many centuries, medicine was unable to save the lives of all sick people. The first step towards a breakthrough was the discovery of the fact about the nature of the origin of many ailments. The point is that most diseases occur due to the destructive effects of microorganisms. Quite quickly, scientists realized that they could be destroyed with the help of other microorganisms that exhibit a “hostile attitude” towards pathogens.

In the process of medical practice Several scientists came to this conclusion back in the 19th century. Among them was Louis Pasteur, who discovered that the action of certain types of microorganisms leads to the death of bacilli. But this information was not enough. It was necessary to find specific effective ways solving the problem. All attempts by doctors to create universal medicine ended unsuccessfully. And only pure chance and a brilliant guess helped Alexander Fleming, the scientist who invented penicillin.

Useful properties of mold

It's hard to believe that the most common mold has bactericidal properties. But this is true. After all, this is not just a greenish-gray substance, but a microscopic fungus. It arises from even smaller embryos that float in the air. In conditions of poor air circulation and other factors, mold forms from them. Penicillin had not yet been discovered, but there are references to the treatment in the 11th century writings of Avicenna purulent diseases with the help of mold.

Dispute between two scientists

In the 60s of the 19th century, Russian doctors Alexey Polotebnov and Vyacheslav Manassein seriously argued. The issue at issue was mold. Polotebnov believed that it is the ancestor of all microbes. Manassein insisted on the opposite point of view, and to prove his case, he conducted a series of studies.

He observed the growth of mold spores that he sowed into the growing medium. As a result, V. Manassein saw that the development of bacteria did not occur precisely at the sites of mold growth. His opinion has now been confirmed experimentally: mold does indeed block the growth of other microorganisms. His opponent admitted the fallacy of his statement. Moreover, Polotebnov himself began to closely study the antibacterial properties of mold. There is evidence that he even successfully used them in the treatment of poorly healing skin ulcers. Polotebnov devoted several chapters of his scientific work description of the properties of mold. There, the scientist recommended using these features in medicine, in particular, for treatment skin diseases. But this idea did not inspire other doctors and was unfairly forgotten.

Who invented penicillin

This merit belongs to the medical scientist. He was a professor in the laboratory of St. Mary of the city of London. Its main theme scientific activity- this is the growth and properties of staphylococci. He discovered penicillin by accident. Fleming was not famous for being particularly careful; quite the contrary. One day, after leaving unwashed cups with bacterial cultures on the work table, a few days later he noticed mold that had formed. He was interested in the fact that the bacteria in the space around the mold were destroyed.

Fleming gave the name to the substance secreted by mold. He called it penicillin. After conducting a large number of experiments, the Scientist became convinced that this substance could kill different types pathogenic bacteria.

In what year was penicillin invented? In 1928, Alexander Fleming's powers of observation gave the world this miraculous substance at that time.

Production and Application

Fleming was unable to learn how to make penicillin, so first practical medicine I wasn't very interested in his discovery. Those who invented penicillin as medical drug, there were Howard Florey and Cheyne Ernst. They, together with their colleagues, isolated pure penicillin and created the world's first antibiotic based on it.

In 1944, during World War II, scientists in the United States were able to industrially produce penicillin. Testing the drug took a little time. Almost immediately, penicillin was used by the Allied armed forces to treat the wounded. When the war ended, US civilians were also able to purchase the miracle drug.

Everyone who invented penicillin (Fleming, Flory, Chain) became owners Nobel Prize in medecine.

Penicillin: history of discovery in Russia

When the Great Patriotic War was still ongoing, J.V. Stalin made numerous attempts to purchase a license for the production of penicillin in Russia. But the United States behaved ambiguously. First, one sum was named, it must be said, astronomical. But later it was increased two more times, explaining these increases by incorrect initial calculations. As a result, the negotiations were unsuccessful.

There is no clear answer to the question of who invented penicillin in Russia. The search for methods for producing analogues was entrusted to microbiologist Zinaida Ermolyeva. She was able to obtain a substance that was later named crustozin. But in terms of its properties, this drug was much inferior to penicillin, and the production technology itself was labor-intensive and expensive.

It was decided to still buy a license. The seller was Ernst Chain. After this, the development of the technology and its launch into production began. This process was led by Nikolai Kopylov. penicillin was established quite quickly. For this Nikolai Kopylov was awarded

Antibiotics in general and penicillin in particular certainly have truly unique properties. But today, scientists are increasingly concerned that many bacteria and microbes are developing resistance to such therapeutic effects.

This problem now requires careful study and search. possible solutions, indeed, a time may come when some bacteria will no longer respond to the action of antibiotics.

He wrote about how the USSR strived to achieve almost all the great inventions of mankind, including the steam locomotive, the incandescent lamp, balloon, bicycle, etc., be attributed to Russian inventors. But in fairness, it must be said that in some cases such statements were pursued purely practical purposes, an example of which is the story with penicillin.

On September 13, 1929, at a meeting of the Medical Research Club at the University of London, a modest microbiologist at St. Maria Alexander Fleming reported on the therapeutic properties of mold. This day is considered to be the birthday of penicillin, but few people paid attention to Fleming’s report at that time. And there were good reasons for this. Mentions of the treatment of purulent diseases with mold were found in the works of Avicenna (11th century) and Philip von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (16th century), but the problem was how to isolate from mold the substance due to which its miraculous properties are manifested.

Three times, at Fleming’s request, biochemists began to purify the substance from foreign impurities, but were unsuccessful: the fragile molecule was destroyed, losing its properties. This problem was solved only in 1938 by a group of scientists at Oxford University, who received a grant of $5 thousand from the Rockefeller Foundation for research. This group was headed by Professor Howard Florey, but it is believed that its brain center was the talented biochemist, grandson of the Mogilev tailor Ernst Chain. However, some experts believe that success was achieved mainly thanks to the third member of the group, the remarkable designer Norman Heatley, who successfully used the latest lyophilization technologies of that time (evaporation at low temperatures). Convinced that the Oxford group had succeeded in purifying penicillin, Alexander Fleming exclaimed: “Yes, you managed to process my substance! These are the kind of chemist scientists I dreamed of working with in 1929.”

But the story of penicillin did not end there. There was no way to establish mass production of the drug in England, which was bombed every day. In the fall of 1941, Flory and Heatley went to America, where they proposed the technology for producing penicillin to the chairman of the US Medical Research Council, Alfred Richards. He immediately contacted President Roosevelt, who agreed to finance the program. The Americans approached the matter with their characteristic scale - the penicillin program in miniature was reminiscent of the Manhattan Project to create an atomic bomb. All work was strictly classified, leading scientists, designers and industrialists were involved in the case. As a result, the Americans managed to develop effective technology deep fermentation. The first plant, worth $200 million, was built at a rapid pace in less than a year. Following this, new factories were built in the USA and Canada. Penicillin production grew by leaps and bounds: June 1943 - 0.4 billion units, September - 1.8 billion, December - 9.2 billion, March 1944 - 40 billion units. Already in March 1945, penicillin appeared in American pharmacies.

Only when sensational news about healings began to arrive from the United States, and after them the drug itself appeared, did England come to their senses, discovering that the technology used for surface fermentation of mold not only did not produce a sufficient amount of penicillin, but in addition it was much more expensive than the American one. For the technology and equipment that the British asked to transfer to them, the Americans demanded huge amounts of money. I had to put my presumptuous overseas friends in their place. With the help of several publications in the press, the British proved to the world their priority in the invention of penicillin. To make it more convincing, the nimble reporters even added something in. There is still a story going around that the microbiologist Fleming was such a slob that his laboratory glassware started to turn on.
mold.

The USSR also tried to borrow this technology from the Americans, but was unsuccessful. Deputy People's Commissar of Health of the USSR A.G. Natradze said: “We sent a delegation abroad to purchase a license for the deep production of penicillin. They asked a very high price - $10 million. We consulted with the minister foreign trade A.I. Mikoyan and agreed to the purchase. Then they told us that they had made a mistake in the calculations and that the price would be $20 million. We again discussed the issue with the government and decided to pay this price as well. Then they said that they would not sell us a license even for $30 million.”

What could be done under these conditions? Follow the example of the British and prove your priority in the discovery of penicillin. First of all, we looked up the archives and found out that back in 1871, Russian doctors Vyacheslav Manassein and Alexey Polotebnov pointed out the medicinal properties of mold. In addition, Soviet newspapers were full of reports about the outstanding successes of the young microbiologist Zinaida Ermolyeva, who managed to produce a domestic analogue of penicillin called crustozin, and, as one would expect, it turned out much better than the American one. From these messages it was not difficult to understand that enemy spies had treacherously stolen the secret of the production of crustozin, because back home in the capitalist jungle, American scientists who suffer from inhuman exploitation would never have thought of this. Later, Veniamin Kaverin (his brother, virologist scientist Lev Zilber, was Ermolyeva’s husband) published the novel “Open Book,” which tells how the main character, whose prototype was Ermolyeva, despite the resistance of enemies and bureaucrats, gave the people a miracle cure.

This was not true. Using the support of Rosalia Zemlyachka (the fury of the red terror, as Solzhenitsyn called her, studied for some time at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lyon, and therefore considered herself an unsurpassed expert in medicine), Zinaida Ermolyeva, based on the fungus Penicillium crustosum, really established the production of crustosin, but the quality of domestic penicillin is significantly higher. inferior to the American one. In addition, Ermolyeva’s penicillin was produced by surface fermentation in glass “mattresses”. And although they were installed wherever possible, the volume of penicillin production in the USSR at the beginning of 1944 was approximately 1000 times less than in the USA.

It ended with the fact that the technology of deep fermentation, bypassing the Americans, was, as far as is known, privately purchased from Ernst Chain, after which the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene of the Red Army, whose director was N. Kopylov, mastered this technology and put it into production. In 1945, after testing domestic penicillin, a large team led by Kopylov was awarded the Stalin Prize. After this, all talk about Russian-Soviet priority in the discovery of penicillin died down - Vyacheslav Manassein and Alexei Polotebnov were once again consigned to oblivion, Zinaida Ermolyeva was removed from the post of director of the Penicillin Institute, and her magic krustozin, thanks to which the builders of communism could live forever, was thrown away to the landfill.

The creator of penicillin is considered to be the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, who was one of the first to discover the medicinal properties of mold and published his discovery in 1929. However, the antibacterial effect of the Penicillium mold fungus was known back in the time of Avicenna, in the 11th century. And in the 70s of the 19th century, the properties of mold were widely used by Russian doctors Alexei Polotebnov and Vyacheslav Manassein to treat skin diseases.

However, it was only possible to isolate a medicinal substance from mold in 1929. But this was still not stable penicillin. pure form. Therefore, Alexander Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernest Cheney. Scientists have developed methods for purifying the antibiotic and launched the production of penicillin in the United States.

Meanwhile, as often happens in history, the creator Soviet penicillin- the outstanding microbiologist Zinaida Ermolyeva, turned out to be undeservedly forgotten. But it was she who managed not only to create a high-quality domestic antibiotic, which turned out to be 1.4 times more effective than the Anglo-American one, but also to organize its mass production during the terrible war years for the country.

What did the music inspire?

As Zinaida Ermolyeva herself recalled, her choice of profession was influenced by the story of the death of her favorite composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who, as you know, died of cholera. So the fight against it terrible disease became her life's work. After graduating with a gold medal from the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium in Novocherkassk, young Zinaida entered the medical faculty of Don University, after which in 1921 she remained to work as an assistant at the department of microbiology.

At the same time, Ermolyeva was in charge of a department of the North Caucasus Bacteriological Institute.

When a cholera epidemic broke out in Rostov-on-Don in 1922, she, ignoring the possibility of infection, conducted research to study the causative agent of this fatal disease. In addition, she conducted a very dangerous experiment with self-infection. In the protocol of one of them, the scientist wrote: “The experiment, which almost ended tragically, proved that some cholera-like vibrios, while in the human intestine, can turn into true cholera vibrios that cause disease.”

By the way, then cholera vibrios were found in the Rostov water supply. And the research of Zinaida Vissarionovna Ermolyeva served as the basis for the development of recommendations for the chlorination of drinking water.

In 1922, Zinaida Ermolyeva conducted a dangerous experiment with self-infection with Vibrio cholerae. Photo: Wikipedia

In 1925, Zinaida Vissarionovna moved to Moscow to organize and head a department at the Biochemical Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health. The scientist's modest luggage consisted of a single suitcase with five hundred cultures of cholera and cholera-like vibrios.

How to save Stalingrad

“Ermolyeva worked in two directions: she studied the causative agent of cholera and developed the domestic drug penicillin,” says head of the Department of Microbiology and Virology No. 2 of Rostov Medical University, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Galina Kharseeva. - In 1942, the fascist occupiers attempted to infect the water supply of Stalingrad with Vibrio cholera. A landing party consisting of epidemiologists and microbiologists, led by Zinaida Vissarionovna Ermolyeva, was urgently sent there. In flasks they carried bacteriophages with them - viruses that infect the cells of the cholera causative agent. Ermolyeva's echelon came under bombing. A lot of medicines were destroyed.”

I had to restore the lost drugs. The most complex microbiological production was established in the basement of one of the buildings. Every day, 50 thousand people took cholera phage along with bread. Ermolyeva personally taught female nurses how to get vaccinated. They read articles on prevention on the radio gastrointestinal diseases. Water wells were thoroughly chlorinated. Thanks to competently carried out anti-epidemic measures, an outbreak of cholera in Stalingrad was prevented.

A weapon called "Crustozin"

"During the Great Patriotic War The majority of deaths of wounded soldiers were due to purulent-aseptic complications. They didn’t know how to fight them back then. The Allies did not sell us foreign penicillin preparations,” Galina Kharseeva continues her story.

The government instructed Ermolyeva, who then headed the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine, to create a domestic analogue of the antibiotic. And she did it. So, in 1942 the first Soviet antibacterial drug called “Krustozin”, and already in 1943 it was put into mass production.

“The use of this drug in the military has dramatically reduced the mortality and morbidity associated with purulent infection. Almost 80% of the wounded began to return to duty. The drug invented by Ermolyeva was studied by foreign scientists in the late 40s and came to the conclusion that it was more effective than overseas penicillin. Then Zinaida Ermolyeva received the honorary name - Madame Penicillin,” added Galina Kharseeva.

The drug invented by Ermolyeva was studied by foreign scientists in the late 40s and came to the conclusion that it was more effective than overseas penicillin. Photo: From personal archive va Zinaida Ermolyeva

Where can I get mold?

There is a legend: in 1942, a young general from Stalin’s inner circle approached Zinaida Vissarionovna. His little daughter was seriously ill - the child had a high fever for a very long time. The doctors were powerless, and the general accidentally learned about the new drug.

Ermolyeva replied that she could not give him Krustozin, since the medicine did not work clinical trials. But the general insisted. And Ermolyeva took a risk. The girl woke up and even recognized her father. It was necessary to continue treatment. But there was very little medicine.

As Tamara Balezina, a laboratory employee, recalled those days, mold to produce the drug was collected wherever they could - on the grass, in the ground, on the walls of a bomb shelter. As a result, the child was saved. In gratitude, the general offered Ermolyeva new apartment. But the scientist refused and asked only for one thing - to save her former but still beloved repressed husband, virologist Lev Zilber, from prison.

According to another version, Ermolyev’s ex-wife turned to Stalin with a request to pardon.

But he’s married to someone else and won’t come back to you,” he was surprised.

Science needs Lev Zilber,” answered Zinaida Vissarionovna.

In March 1944, on the eve of his 50th birthday, Lev Zilber was released, apparently thanks to a letter about the scientist’s innocence sent to Stalin, which was signed by a number of well-known people in the country. Later he was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Zinaida Ermolyeva was born in 1898 in the Volgograd region. She graduated with a gold medal from the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium in Novocherkassk and the Faculty of Medicine of Don University. She studied cholera and discovered a luminous cholera-like vibrio that bears her name. In 1942, she received penicillin for the first time in the USSR. From 1952 until the end of her life, Zinaida Ermolyeva headed the Department of Microbiology and the Laboratory of New Antibiotics of the CIUV (Russian medical Academy postgraduate education). Author of more than 500 scientific works and six monographs. She became the prototype of the heroine of Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “Open Book”. Died in 1974

TASS DOSSIER /Yulia Kovaleva/. 75 years ago, on February 12, 1941, in London, British scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Chain first used penicillin to treat humans. The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about the history of the discovery of this drug.

Penicillin is an antibiotic with a broad antimicrobial effect. Is the first effective medicine against many serious illnesses, in particular, syphilis and gangrene, as well as infections caused by staphylococci and streptococci. It is obtained from some types of mold fungus of the genus Penicillium (Latin penicillus - “brush”; under a microscope, spore-bearing mold cells look like a brush).

History of discovery

Mentions of the use of mold in medicinal purposes found in the works of the Persian scientist Avicenna (2nd century) and the Swiss physician and philosopher Paracelsus (14th century). Bolivian ethnobotanist Enrique Oblitas Poblete in 1963 described the use of mold by Indian healers in the Inca era (XV-XVI centuries).

In 1896, the Italian doctor Bartolomeo Gosio, studying the causes of mold damage to rice, came up with a formula for an antibiotic similar to penicillin. Due to the fact that he was unable to propose a practical application for the new drug, his discovery was forgotten. In 1897, French military doctor Ernest Duchesne noticed that Arab grooms collected mold from damp saddles and treated horses’ wounds with it. Duchesne carefully examined the mold, tested it on guinea pigs and revealed its destructive effect on the stick typhoid fever. Ernest Duchesne presented the results of his research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, but they were also not recognized. In 1913, American scientists Carl Alsberg and Otis Fisher Black managed to obtain an acid with antimicrobial properties from mold, but their research was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War.

In 1928, British scientist Alexander Fleming conducted a routine experiment while researching resistance human body bacterial infections. He discovered that some of the colonies of staphylococcal cultures he left in laboratory dishes were contaminated with a strain of mold Penicillium notatum. Around the mold patches, Fleming noticed an area where there was no bacteria. This allowed him to conclude that the mold produces a bacteria-killing substance, which the scientist called “penicillin.”

Fleming underestimated his discovery, believing that obtaining a cure would be very difficult. His work was continued by Oxford scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. In 1940, they isolated the drug in its pure form and studied it therapeutic properties. On February 12, 1941, the first injection of penicillin was given to a human. Flory and Chain's patient was a London policeman who was dying of blood poisoning. After several injections he felt better, but the supply of medicine quickly ran out and the patient died. In 1943, Howard Flory transferred the technology for obtaining a new drug to American scientists, and mass production of the antibiotic was established in the USA. In 1945, Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernest Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

In the 1870s Doctors Alexey Polotebnov and Vyacheslav Manassein studied mold and found that it blocks the growth of other microorganisms. Polotebnov recommended using these features of mold in medicine, in particular, for the treatment of skin diseases. But the idea did not gain traction.

In the USSR, the first samples of penicillin were obtained by microbiologists Zinaida Ermolyeva and Tamara Balezina. In 1942, they discovered a strain of Penicillium Crustosum that produces penicillin. During testing, the drug showed much greater activity than its English and American counterparts. However, the resulting antibiotic lost its properties during storage and caused fever in patients.

In 1945, trials of penicillin, developed according to Western models, began in the Soviet Union. The technology of its production was mastered by the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene of the Red Army under the leadership of Nikolai Kopylov.

Confession

Mass production of penicillin began during World War II. According to some estimates, thanks to this antibiotic, about 200 million people were saved during the war and after it. The discovery of this drug has been repeatedly recognized as one of the most important scientific achievements in the history of mankind. Majority modern antibiotics were created precisely after research medicinal properties penicillin.