Action of Sodium Salicylate on Fermentation of Salicin and Glucose by Streptococci

Abstract

The action of sodium salicylate on the biological functions of streptococci is of particular interest because of the obviously beneficial effects obtained through the administration of sodium salicylate in rheumatic fever. 1 , 2 The etiology of this disease is still considered to be doubtful, yet streptococci seem to be involved, at least in producing complications. Experiments on the direct streptococcidal action of salicylates indicated that this action is not sufficiently strong to explain any curative effect. 3 Curative effect was not found in animal experiments. 4 The opinion that salicylates act in clinical cases mainly by virtue of their antipyretic and analgesic properties has thus come to be almost generally accepted. 5 , 6 However, this is in contradiction to the fact that other antipyretic and analgesic drugs cannot as a rule replace salicylates in rheumatic fever.

Studies on the mechanism of the action of different chemotherapeutic agents (neoarsphenamine, Bayer 205) have indicated that in low therapeutic concentrations these do not kill the parasites but merely decrease their virulence. 7 While the activity of these agents can be easily demonstrated in animal experiments, salicylates do not seem to be active in the experimental infections so far studied. This may be due to the fact that there is no experimental infection of streptococci which is strictly comparable with rheumatic fever. The writers have studied skin lesions produced by the intradermal injection of streptococci (green producing and hemolytic) and by the same organisms treated in vitro with sodium salicylate. There was no appreciable difference between the lesions produced by salicylate-treated streptococci and controls. Neither was any effect observed on similar skin lesions in 2 rabbits which received 10 daily injections of one gram each (5 cc. of 20% solution) of sodium salicylate subcutaneously. Seven injections were given prior to and 3 following the intradermal injections of streptococci.