Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Major Medical Breakthroughs in the Twentieth Century by Morton A. Meyers Page A
Authors: Morton A. Meyers
understanding of cancer.
—A COMMITTEE OF THE I NSTITUTE OF M EDICINE ,
N ATIONAL A CADEMY OF S CIENCES,
ON THE N ATIONAL C ANCER A CT AND THE “WAR ON CANCER”
11
Veni, Vidi, Vinca
The Healing Power of Periwinkle
The discovery of a totally new chemotherapeutic agent derived from a natural plant came about through fortuitous circumstances that led to an outstanding example of serendipity.
In 1952 Dr. Clark Noble of Toronto received from a patient in Jamaica a small envelope full of leaves. These were from a subtropical periwinkle plant with the botanical name Vinca rosea, used by the locals to make a tea that appeared to help their diabetes. A physician in Jamaica, Dr. C. D. Johnston, was convinced that drinking extracts of the periwinkle leaves helped his diabetic patients to lower their blood sugar. Indeed, teas made from periwinkle were used by diabetics in places as geographically diverse as the Philippines, South Africa, India, and Australia, following the customs of traditional folk medicine. 1 A proprietary herbal preparation, Vinculin, was even marketed in England as a “treatment” for diabetes.
Intrigued and determined to find out if there was anything to the claims, Clark Noble decided to have the leaves analyzed. And he knew exactly where to send them: to biochemist James Collip's laboratory at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Dr. Collip had worked with Frederick Banting and Charles Best in Toronto and had distinguished himself for the extraction and purification of the hormone insulin so that it could be used in the treatment of diabetes.
Years earlier, Clark had won a coin flip against his brotherRobert for the opportunity to work with Best, who needed only one of them as an assistant. It fell to Robert Noble, an endocrinologist now working in Collip's laboratory, to investigate extracts of Vinca. When given orally to rabbits and diabetic rats, the extracts had no effect on blood sugar or on the disease. With the intention of increasing the possible effectiveness, Noble then injected concentrated water extracts within the abdominal cavities of the rats. “They survived about 5 days, but then died rather unexpectedly from diffuse multiple abscesses,” severe bacterial infections, as “apparently some natural barrier to infection was being depressed.” This phenomenon, observed only by chance, was shown to be due to profoundly depressed bone marrow function and gross depletion of white blood cells. Noble immediately grasped that these consequences would be beneficial to people with diseases in which bone marrow overproduced.
Dr. Johnston in Jamaica continued to send a supply of dried periwinkle leaves, collected by Boy Scouts on camping trips in the jungle. The amount, however, proved inadequate for separation and purification of active factors. But by growing the plant in greenhouses in Ontario, Noble and his coworkers were able to extract a new alkaloid in pure crystalline form, which proved highly active in experimental animals, not only causing marked depletion of bone marrow and a dramatic decrease in white blood cells but also acting to shrink transplanted tumors. Taking its origin and its effect on white blood cells into account, scientists named the alkaloid vincaleukoblastine, which was later shortened to vinblastine.
The discovery was announced at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1958 in a report entitled “Role of chance observations in chemotherapy: Vinca rosea. ” Few could recall any such candid title in presenting a discovery. The conference was organized to review new projects for the large-scale screening of chemicals for antitumor properties, but Noble seized upon the opportunity to underscore the value of serendipity:
This paper may seem somewhat unorthodox in a monograph on screening procedures. However, we are eager to present the role of chance in obtaining new leads for chemotherapy and to illustrate this with a specific example. The
—A COMMITTEE OF THE I NSTITUTE OF M EDICINE ,
N ATIONAL A CADEMY OF S CIENCES,
ON THE N ATIONAL C ANCER A CT AND THE “WAR ON CANCER”
11
Veni, Vidi, Vinca
The Healing Power of Periwinkle
The discovery of a totally new chemotherapeutic agent derived from a natural plant came about through fortuitous circumstances that led to an outstanding example of serendipity.
In 1952 Dr. Clark Noble of Toronto received from a patient in Jamaica a small envelope full of leaves. These were from a subtropical periwinkle plant with the botanical name Vinca rosea, used by the locals to make a tea that appeared to help their diabetes. A physician in Jamaica, Dr. C. D. Johnston, was convinced that drinking extracts of the periwinkle leaves helped his diabetic patients to lower their blood sugar. Indeed, teas made from periwinkle were used by diabetics in places as geographically diverse as the Philippines, South Africa, India, and Australia, following the customs of traditional folk medicine. 1 A proprietary herbal preparation, Vinculin, was even marketed in England as a “treatment” for diabetes.
Intrigued and determined to find out if there was anything to the claims, Clark Noble decided to have the leaves analyzed. And he knew exactly where to send them: to biochemist James Collip's laboratory at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Dr. Collip had worked with Frederick Banting and Charles Best in Toronto and had distinguished himself for the extraction and purification of the hormone insulin so that it could be used in the treatment of diabetes.
Years earlier, Clark had won a coin flip against his brotherRobert for the opportunity to work with Best, who needed only one of them as an assistant. It fell to Robert Noble, an endocrinologist now working in Collip's laboratory, to investigate extracts of Vinca. When given orally to rabbits and diabetic rats, the extracts had no effect on blood sugar or on the disease. With the intention of increasing the possible effectiveness, Noble then injected concentrated water extracts within the abdominal cavities of the rats. “They survived about 5 days, but then died rather unexpectedly from diffuse multiple abscesses,” severe bacterial infections, as “apparently some natural barrier to infection was being depressed.” This phenomenon, observed only by chance, was shown to be due to profoundly depressed bone marrow function and gross depletion of white blood cells. Noble immediately grasped that these consequences would be beneficial to people with diseases in which bone marrow overproduced.
Dr. Johnston in Jamaica continued to send a supply of dried periwinkle leaves, collected by Boy Scouts on camping trips in the jungle. The amount, however, proved inadequate for separation and purification of active factors. But by growing the plant in greenhouses in Ontario, Noble and his coworkers were able to extract a new alkaloid in pure crystalline form, which proved highly active in experimental animals, not only causing marked depletion of bone marrow and a dramatic decrease in white blood cells but also acting to shrink transplanted tumors. Taking its origin and its effect on white blood cells into account, scientists named the alkaloid vincaleukoblastine, which was later shortened to vinblastine.
The discovery was announced at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1958 in a report entitled “Role of chance observations in chemotherapy: Vinca rosea. ” Few could recall any such candid title in presenting a discovery. The conference was organized to review new projects for the large-scale screening of chemicals for antitumor properties, but Noble seized upon the opportunity to underscore the value of serendipity:
This paper may seem somewhat unorthodox in a monograph on screening procedures. However, we are eager to present the role of chance in obtaining new leads for chemotherapy and to illustrate this with a specific example. The
Similar Books
Confessions of an Art Addict
Peggy Guggenheim
The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund
Jill Kargman
Of A Darker Nature
Michelle Clay
The Times Are Never So Bad
Andre Dubus
Killing Britney
Sean Olin
Cocaine
Jack Hillgate
Vengeance Is Mine
Joanne Fluke
A Paper Marriage
Jessica Steele
His Ever After (Love Square)
Jessica Ingro
Wardstone 7 - The Spook's Nightmare
Joseph Delaney