Sulfonamide

Bacteria need folic acid to survive, and unlike humans, they have to make it themselves.

That makes this pathway a great target for selective toxicity, and this is where the sulfonamides or sulfa drugs come in.

They work by mimicking molecules in the folic acid pathway, so basically they're imposters.

They get incorporated into the pathway but don't function correctly, so the whole process gets blocked.

A common example is trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, or Bactrim, which you'll see used frequently for urinary tract infections.

Silver sulfadiazine, or Silvadene, is another example worth knowing, used topically for burns and eye infections.

Penicillins and sulfa drugs are also known for causing allergic reactions because of their reactive chemistries and how they interact with the human body.

In addition to worrying about toxicity, the immune response can also be triggered and anaphylaxis is life-threatening.

And over, um, over time, in response to some substantial tragedies, um, so, uh, uh, there was an example where, you know, hundreds of children died as a result of a poison medicine that was developed with a, a chemical that's used in antifreeze and not properly tested, right? And then Congress steps in and says, "Okay, we want to make sure that drugs are safe before they're allowed on the market."

Sulphonamide, I think-

And then in the '60s

...

She had been on a sobriety jag since Dunkirk, when she guzzled three French 75s in a row and, quote, "Dropped to my knees and prayed, through some miracle, the British might escape annihilation." She subsequently pledged not to drink until the war was over.

But the studio doctor first prescribed Sulfa, an early antibiotic, and when the pneumonia came back, he suggested medicinal use of whiskey.

As resolved as Tallulah was to stay on the wagon for the sake of British civilization, she obeyed the doctor's orders.

After the fact, Hitchcock somewhat snidely remarked to François Truffaut that, "The characterization by Tallulah Bankhead dominated the whole film." That dominance was praised by the New York Film Critics Circle, who gave Tallulah their Best Actress prize for Lifeboat.