The early history of antibiotic discovery: Empiricism ruled

Abstract

The history of the discovery of agents used in the treatment of bacterial infections is reviewed. Starting from the early work of Ehrlich that led to Salvarsan, the approach used to discover novel antibiotics is described. The antibiotics discussed are of synthetic, semi synthetic, or natural origin. Research is this area was initially driven by the chemical efforts of the dye industry; however, with the discovery of penicillin and streptomycin, natural products, made by soil microbes for many years, assumed a predominant role. More recently, as the productivity of soil screening programs has diminished, chemistry-driven efforts have come to play an important role again. The incredible structural diversity of the antibiotics discovered has resulted from a largely empirical approach, which has been based on the large scale screening of soil microbes as potential producers of antibacterial activity without the benefit of any knowledge as to the mechanism of action and basis for selective toxicity.