Arsphenamine syphilis treatment

Syphilis treatment German physician Paul Ehrhch and Japanese physician Hata Sahachiro discover the effective treatment of arsphenamine (named Salvarsan by Ehrlich) for syphilis. 

The compound arsphenamine is also called compound 606 because it was the 606th arsenic compound that Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) had synthesized for use in treating diseases. His assistant found this compound to be effective as a treatment for syphilis. Ehrlich also coined the word chemotherapy. ... 

The toxicity of arsenic has been put into practical use in medicine. Ehrlich in 1909 developed Salvarsan, the trade name for arsphenamine (1), which was the first modem chemotherapeutic agent effective in the treatment of syphilis, which was eventually phased out by better organoarsenicals and latter by penicillin. Some specialist arsenical dmgs are still the treatment of choice for amoebic infections like glycobiarsol (2). ... 

Arsenic was, without doubt, important in the successful treatment of S5q>hilis. The drug Salvarsan (arsphenamine) was discovered by Paul Erhlich during a systematic study of arsenic compounds for a potential cure for syphilis. Salvarsan is a synthetic organic chemical that contains arsenic he had tried more than 600 chemicals when he happened on this one. His quest was based on the behef that he could find a substance that was selectively toxic to the organism that causes syphilis (a spirochaete) but less toxic to the patient, a magic bullet . Only recently, arsenic trioxide (the form of arsenic commonly used for homicide) was licensed by the... 

Arsphenamine has been found to be extremely valuable. Its greatest use is in the treatment of syphilis the drug attacks the micro-organism responsible for this disease, Spirocheta pallida. It has also been useful in the treatment of some other diseases. At the present time it seems to be in the process of being superseded by penicillin (which we shall discuss below) in the treatment of syphilis. 

Ehrlich later synthesized another compound, neoarsphenamine. which is somewhat superior to arsphenamine for the treatment ol syphilis. It is closely related in structure, differing only in having a more complicated side chain in place of two of the amino groups of the molecule. 

Chemotherapy may be said to have begun when Ehrlich developed his arsphenamine treatment of syphilis (1910), the so-called magic bullets that killed microorganisms with minimum damage to the host. This practice has been broadly applied to cancer therapy in recent years but without positive results. Another significant event was Funk s discovery (1911) of the ability of certain plant products to cure a disease called beri-beri these soon were named vitamins. Their classification, metabolic functions, and curative properties were established by many researchers, including McCollum, Szent-Gyorgyi, Sherman, and R. J. Williams (B complex). 

At the invention of modem drug discovery, Paul Ehrlich screened just over 600 synthetic compounds to discover arsphenamine (Salvarsan), a novel treatment for syphilis. With advances in screening technology, researchers can now routinely test millions of compounds in protein-based... 

Early in the twentieth century, Paul Ehrlich introduced the arseno dye salvarsan (Arsphenamine) for the treatment of syphilis. Salvarsan was the first synthetic anti-infective drug and thus represented a major breakthrough despite its toxicity. 

The synthetic substance arsphenamine was used, in 1909, by the German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) as a therapeutic agent against syphilis. This application is taken as having founded the study of chemotherapy, the treatment of disease by the use of specific chemicals. 

Figure 1. Arsphenamine (trade name Salvarsan), the result of the first modern medicinal chemistry program, discovered by Paul Erlich in 1909for the treatment of syphilis.

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