Infections caused by resistant organisms: Could organic arsenic compounds be an effective treatment?

Without question one of the most important medicinal chemistry discoveries of the 20th century was made by Paul Ehrlich and his colleagues, chemist, Alfred Bertheim and bacteriologist, Sahachiro Hata. They ushered in the age of targeted chemotherapy in 1910 with the discovery of the anti-syphilitic organic arsenic agent, arsphenamine or Salvarsan (also known as 606). It was the clinical compound of choice for treating syphilis until penicillin and other antibiotics were introduced clinically in the 1940s.

Possible chemical initiators of cognitive dysfunction in phenylketonuria, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Though a great deal is known of the pathophysiology of phenylketonuria (PKU), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) very little is known regarding possible chemical species responsible for initiating the cascade of events that ultimately cause cognitive dysfunction. Can these be viewed as inborn errors in metabolism, occurring at various stages in the life cycle, analogous to adult onset diabetes? One major deficiency in understanding such conditions is the paucity of information regarding the total metabolic pathway for various amino acids that may be implicated in their causation. For example in PKU, its etiology was reported in 1934 and dietary restriction of phenylalanine proved effective for individuals with unsatisfactory metabolism of phenylalanine.