6.3 Discovering Drugs Flashcards
1
Q
How do scientists make drugs?
A
adapt chemicals from microorganisms, plants and animals
2
Q
What drugs are made from plants?
A
digitalis and digoxin: made from foxglove
aspirin: made from willow
3
Q
What is digoxin used for?
A
for older patients with heart problems
4
Q
How did Alexander Flemming discover penicillin?
A
- he was careless, leaving lids off culture plates
- after a holiday, he noticed that a lot of the plates had mould on them
- he noticed a clear ring in the jelly around some of the mould and realised that something killed the bacteria
- he named the substance ‘penicillin’ after the Penicillium mould that produced it
5
Q
What did Ernst Chain and Howard Florey do?
A
- managed to extract penicillin
- worked out that penicillin cured bacterial infections in people
- gave some to a man dying of a blood infection and he recovered
- partnered with Pfizer to make penicillin on an industrial scale
6
Q
why is it difficult to find new medicines
A
- not easy to find chemicals that kill bacteria without damaging human cells
7
Q
How do scientists use soil samples to produce antibiotics
A
searching for microorganisms to produce a new antibiotic against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
8
Q
Why was it so difficult to make a medicine out of penicillin?
A
they didn’t have the technology to mass-produce it
