Origins of the Quinolone Class of Antibacterials: An Expanded "Discovery Story".
Published descriptions of the specific lines of research leading to the discovery of therapeutically important medicines, especially major new class medicines, have long provided value to the biopharmaceutical community as models of success, often influencing the strategies and methods of subsequent drug research. Quinolone antibacterials represent one of medicine's most important classes of anti-infective agents; yet in contrast to many other classes of anti-infectives, astonishingly few details concerning the origin of the class or the rationale leading to the selection of the first clinical agent, nalidixic acid, were ever published by the discoverers. Moreover, earlier disclosures of an independent discovery of the quinolone class of antibacterials have been almost entirely overlooked by the scientific literature. This review brings together all the available information from primary literature sources relating to both discoveries and provides for the first time a much fuller, if still partially speculative, story of the earliest years of this important class of drugs.
AstraZeneca, 35 Gatehouse Drive, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451, United States.
Gregory S
GS
Bisacchi
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000266:history* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000266:history; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D009268:Nalidixic Acid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000266:history / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015363:Quinolones / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000266:history* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D015363:Quinolones; D009268:Nalidixic Acid