HAPPY accidents
MARION McMULLEN LOOKS AT HOW SOME OF THE GREAT MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS HAPPENED BY SHEER CHANCE
WHOOPS, they did it again. Many of the world’s biggest discoveries have happened by sheer fluke. Scientists working on the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine to beat Covid-19 recently revealed its effectiveness jumped from 70% up to 90% because of a dosing error.
Dr Mene Pangalos, head of AstraZeneca’s biopharmaceutical research, said the discovery that giving a half-dose at the start worked better was “serendipity’.’ Volunteers were expected to receive two full doses of the vaccine, however when those in the vaccine group reported much milder side effects, than predicted, the team went back and checked. “.. and we found out that they had underpredicted the dose of the vaccine by half,” said Dr Pangalos. The team continued with the half-dose group, and administered the second, full dose booster shot at the scheduled time. The results showed the vaccine was 90 per cent effective among this group.
It is far from the first time an accident has led to a major medical breakthrough. Cornish chemist and inventor Humphry Davy was behind many groundbreaking ideas including the Davy safety lamp for miners. He also accidentally discovered the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide while carrying out work on gases and published his findings in 1800. He promptly named nitrous oxide “laughing gas” and it was later widely used by dentists. Davy said of his work: “I have learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.” German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen also accidentally discovered x-rays in 1895 when he tried to block the light coming from a cathode ray tube he was working on. He put his hand in front of the light and saw the bones of his hand appear on a screen. He later performed the world’s first official x-ray on his wife Anna Bertha’s hand. It showed the bones of her hand and the ring she was wearing. Röntgen’s discovery led to him being awarded the first Nobel prize in physics in 1901, although he later claimed: “Great discoveries are made accidentally less often than the populace likes to think”. Scottish-born scientist Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 when he returned to his lab after a two-week holiday to find uncleaned petri dishes accidentally left out had mould growing all over them apart from areas were airborne spores of penicillium had landed, killing off the bacteria. His discovery led to him being awarded both a Nobel prize and a knighthood. “One sometimes finds what one is not looking for,” he said. An American farmer in the 1930s worried about his cows bleeding to death led to the development of blood thinner Warfarin. They discovered the cows were suffering from an anticoagulant found in the hay they were eating. The first part of the name Warfarin comes from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, where work was carried out. It was first registered as a rat poison in America in 1948, but was accidentally found to be safe for human use when a young Navy recruit attempted to commit suicide by eating it, but survived. Marketed as an anti-coagulant, it was prescribed for American President Dwight Eisenhower after he suffered a heart attack in 1955.
A slip of the hand led to the coronary angiography. American surgeon F Mason Sones was operating on a heart patient in 1958 when a large amount of dye was accidentally injected directly into the heart. He rushed to do an emergency open heart massage, but the patient’s heart started beating when he shouted at him to cough. Sones later found the dye allowed him to see the heart and blockage more clearly.
Viagra was initially intended as a heart medication to treat high blood pressure and angina pectoris, but clinical trials proved it was ineffective. However, it was discovered that men taking part in the trial reported it helped with erectile dysfunction. Pfizer began a new trial involving 4,000 men which eventually saw the little blue pill being made patented in 1996.
Botox was originally used by American ophthalmologist Dr Alan Scott in the 1980s as a cure for crossed eyes. He worked on developing and
manufacturing the drug but accidentally discovered it had an unusual side effect – it made the wrinkles around the eyes disappear. Botox was approved for cosmetic use in America in 2002 and has gone on to become a major industry worldwide. When injected into facial muscles, Botox, or botulinum toxin, eliminates wrinkles by weakening or paralysing the muscles which keeps them from contracting. The effect lasted for up to three months.
Sometimes medical research can also produce brilliant, if unexpected side effects. British chemist Sir William Perkin was attempting to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria in 1856 when he extracted a brilliant purple dye instead which was subsequently named mauveine. He went on to create the modern synthetic dyestuffs industry and was knighted in 1906.
Maybe Huckleberry Finn author Mark Twain put it best: “Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.”