Improvements in technology - magic bullets

• Magic bullet


  A chemical treatment that kills specific bacteria inside the body without harming the body
• Paul Ehrlich


  • Worked with Robert Koch in Germany
  • Put forward the concept of a magic bullet in 1900
  • Argued that a chemical could deliberately target bacteria in the human body and kill those bacteria
• Arsenic


  A form of poison
• Compound


  A substance formed by the chemical union (involving bond formation) of two or more elements
• Syphilis


  A sexually transmitted disease which causes degeneration to the brain and body if untreated
• Salvarsan 606


  • First magic bullet
  • Discovered by Japanese scientist Sahachiro Hata in 1909
  • 606th compound of Salvarsan (a drug containing arsenic)
  • Able to kill the bacteria that cause syphilis
• Prontosil


  • Second magic bullet
  • Discovered by Gerhard Domagk in the 1930s
  • Killed the bacteria that cause blood poisoning
  • Used to cure Domagk's daughter's blood poisoning
• Scientists realised that Salvarsan 606 and Prontosil contained sulphonamide
• Following the discovery of sulphonamide, drug companies developed sulphonamide cures for diseases such as pneumonia and scarlet fever