Evening star., 1940-04-11
Chemists Report
Drug 10 Break She'll
Of TubercIe Bacillus
Sulfonilomide Joins
With Agent to Cure
Disease in Guinea Pigs
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
Star 6ta6 CORRESPONDENT.

SSsA 0SsA NVE1OopUuueut.
CINCINNATI, April 11.-A sulfa-
nilamide derivative, 100-fold more
potent than the parent substance
against streptococci in test tubes,
and a combination treatment that
appears to cure tuberculosis in
guinea pigs. were reported to the
American Chemical Society meeting
here today.
The tubercle bacillus hitherto has
resisted any chemical attack because
OF its hard shell" which such a
bacteria poisoning compound as sui
tanilan1ide cannot penetrate. Small
doses OF dinitrophenol, a powerful
war explosive, break up this shell
and make 1t possible for the other
drug to get at the vital parts of
the minute organism, it was shown
IN experiments reported by Drs. N.
L. Howell and E. G. Link Of Men,
phis, Tenn.
Their experiments, they stressed,
have been confined to guinea pigs,
which are as susceptible as humans
to the tubercle bacillus. The effects
on humans remain to be tested by
the medical profession. The treated
animals, however, gained weight
rapidly and lived to a ripe old age.
Apparently the dreaded bacillus was
conquered.
Built From Carbolic Acid.
Dinitrophenol Is built up from
carbolic acid and has exceptional
penetrating powers. Several other
compounds might act in q similar
way as pioneer regiments. against
the intrenched hosts of tubercle Or
ganisms, the two chemists said,
Sulfanilamide was chosen to use in
combination with dinitrophenol be-
cause OF its potency against other
disease organisms. Other we'll
known chemicals might serve the
same purpose once the bacillus is
penetrated, the experimenters said
The new sulfanilamide derivative,
reported by DR.. Jonas Hamlet of
the Israel Zion Hospital of Brook
lyn, smothers bacteria in their own
breath. This apparently is the way
sulfanilamide itself acts, DR.. Kam-
let said, but 1t works with a COM
plicated chain process In the body
which can be telescoped in the test
tube.
Many bacteria, he explained, give
on hydrogen peroxide. best known
as a hair-bleaching wash as the
end product Of their breathing Just
as human beings breathe out car
bon dioxide. A man in a tightly
sealed room eventually would
smother to death in the gas he him
self had exhaled. In the same way,
DR.. Hamlet said, bacteria would
smother in the hydrogen peroxide
they themselves produce. But ma
ture takes care Of bacteria as well
as men. In the blood stream is an
engine known as satalase which
destroys the peroxide about as fast
ss 1t is formed.
,Nulihes Engines Effect.
Because Of this, the bacteria are
enabled to survive and multiply.
The engine increases until the
patient undergoes a long period OF
chills and fevers. Now the action
OF sulfanilamide has been demon
strated, DR.. Hamlet said, to be that
Of destroying this engine or nuln-
flying its effects. It does this, he
explained, when it changes in the
blood stream into another COM
pound. Once this Is formed, the dis
ease germs soon are surrounded by
a zone Of peroxide and perish.
But have found" DR.. Hamlet
said that less than per cent
Of the sulfanilamide is converted to
the really active compound, para
by d NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
mide. So 1t would be expected that
the latter compound would be many
times more active than sulfanila-
mide itself. I have synthesized such
compounds in the laboratory, iso-
lated them in pure state, and tested
them on mice. It is obvious that
there would be a tremendous ad-
vantage In giving patient COM
pound which can inactivate cata-
lase directly, rather than feeding
him large amounts of sulfanilamide
and depending on the slow mecha-
nisms of the body to oxidize a mere
2 per cent of the inactive sulfa-
nilamide.
"The delay of four to eight hours
that always is observed after ad-
ministering sulfanilamide or sulfa-
pyridine before the patients tenn