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Penicillin and other β-lactam antibiotics act by inhibiting penicillin-binding proteins, which normally catalyze cross-linking of bacterial cell walls. Penicillin kills bacteria by inhibiting the completion of the synthesis of peptidoglycans, the structural component of the bacterial cell wall. It specifically inhibits the activity of enzymes ...
Antibiotics with less reliable but occasional (depending on isolate and subspecies) activity: occasionally penicillins including penicillin, ampicillin and ampicillin-sulbactam, amoxicillin and amoxicillin-clavulnate, and piperacillin-tazobactam (not all vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus isolates are resistant to penicillin and ampicillin)
This is a list of common β-lactam antibiotics—both administered drugs and those not in clinical use—organized by structural class. Antibiotics are listed alphabetically within their class or subclass by their nonproprietary name. If an antibiotic is a combination drug, both ingredients will be listed.
A common form of antibiotic production in modern times is semi-synthetic. Semi-synthetic production of antibiotics is a combination of natural fermentation and laboratory work to maximize the antibiotic. Maximization can occur through efficacy of the drug itself, amount of antibiotics produced, and potency of the antibiotic being produced.
β-Lactam antibiotics are indicated for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible organisms. At first, β-lactam antibiotics were mainly active only against gram-positive bacteria, yet the recent development of broad-spectrum β-lactam antibiotics active against various gram-negative organisms has increased their usefulness.
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of such infections. [1] [2] They may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria.
Penicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus [3] appeared very soon after penicillin entered general clinical use in 1943, and the mechanism of resistance was the production of β-lactamase. Modification of the penicillin molecule so that it was resistant to being broken down by β-lactamase was able to temporarily overcome this problem.
This proved for the first time that chemically modified antibiotics could have biological activity. Within a few years, a number of semisynthetic tetracyclines had entered the market, and now most antibiotic discoveries are of novel active derivatives of older compounds. [43]