ANTIBACTERIAL ACTION AND METABOLISM OF FIVE SULPHONES

Abstract

The therapeutic action of 4: 4'-diaminodiphenylsulphone (DDS) was demon- strated by Despite this, DDS was considered to be too toxic for use in man, apparently because it could not be given in the same doses as the sulphonamides. As far as one can tell, no trials' were undertaken to assess the effects of doses that were tolerated. However, McEwen, Pizer, and Paterson (1941) introduced DDS into veterinary medicine. Francis (1947a) and Francis, Peters, and Davies (1947) showed that it was more potent than any of the sulphonamides against Str. agalactiae in vitro, in the chick-embryo, and in the mouse (at equal blood concentrations), but that it was less active than the heterocyclic sulphonamides against Gram-negative organisms. DDS was more persistent and produced better blood-concentration curve areas than the sulphonamides in all domestic animals except the pig, in which its place was taken by sulphamezathine When 10 g. suspended in liquid paraffin were injected into each quarter of non-lactating cows, blood concentrations above 2 mg./100 ml. were present for five days or more, and high " milk" concen- trations for much longer periods This dose cured 79.4 per cent of 63 non-lactating quarters infected with Str. agalactiae, and when combined with 50,000 units of penicillin the single injection cured 96.3 per cent of 54 quarters (Francis, 1949a).