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Abstract:
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The years spanning 1929-1940 were to have quite an impact on the world of medicine. A compound that displayed antibacterial properties was discovered in 1929 and named penicillin (1). Rescarch was begun in 1938 that led to the widespread use of penicillin and penicillin-related compounds as antibacterial agents in treatments of diseases (2,3). In 1940, however, the first evidence for an enzyme from bacteria that was able to catalyze the hydrolytic inactivation of penicillin was found in Escherichia coli by Abraham and Chain (4). ît was noted that bacteria which produced penicillinase and were thus resistant to penicillin had become more prevalent than sensitive strains of bacteria. Cephalosporin C, another naturalîy occurring antibacterial agent, was discovered in 1953 and was found to be more active against penicillinase-producing bacteria than natural peniciîlin (5). However, strains of bacteria resistant to this antibiotic and its related compounds have arisen and the problem of how to overcome this bacterial resistance to antibiotic treatment has beccnie increasingly important in therapeutic medicine(6). |