Skip to content
EntityQ3874700· pop 14· linked from 17 articles

neosalvarsan

Sign in to save

Also known as Neosalvarsán

Neosalvarsan (also known as neoarsphenamine) is a synthetic chemotherapeutic that is an organoarsenic compound. It became available in 1912 and superseded the more toxic and less water-soluble Salvarsan as an effective treatment for syphilis. Because both of these arsenicals carried considerable risk of side effects, they were replaced for this indication by penicillin in the 1940s.

Research

161 papers

via PubMed

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

1 sections
Contents
  • References

Neosalvarsan (also known as neoarsphenamine) is a synthetic chemotherapeutic that is an organoarsenic compound. It became available in 1912 and superseded the more toxic and less water-soluble Salvarsan as an effective treatment for syphilis. Because both of these arsenicals carried considerable risk of side effects, they were replaced for this indication by penicillin in the 1940s.

Both Salvarsan and Neosalvarsan were developed in the laboratory of Paul Ehrlich in Frankfurt, Germany. Their discoveries were the result of the first organized team effort to optimize the biological activity of a lead compound through systematic chemical modifications. This scheme is the basis for most modern pharmaceutical research. Both Salvarsan and Neosalvarsan are prodrugsthat is, they are metabolised into the active drug in the body.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “neosalvarsan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.