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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.
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.
Antimicrobial use has been common practice for at least 2000 years. Ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks used specific molds and plant extracts to treat infection. [5]In the 19th century, microbiologists such as Louis Pasteur and Jules Francois Joubert observed antagonism between some bacteria and discussed the merits of controlling these interactions in medicine. [6]
Tetracyclines have a broad spectrum of antibiotic action. Originally, they possessed some level of bacteriostatic activity against almost all medically relevant aerobic and anaerobic bacterial genera, both Gram-positive and Gram-negative , with a few exceptions, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus spp. , which display intrinsic resistance.
The modes of action by Antimicrobial peptides. The modes of action by which antimicrobial peptides kill microbes are varied, [10] and may differ for different bacterial species. [11] Some antimicrobial peptides kill both bacteria and fungi, e.g., psoriasin kills E. coli and several filamentous fungi. [12]
Quinolone antibiotics constitute a large group of broad-spectrum bacteriocidals that share a bicyclic core structure related to the substance 4-quinolone. [1] They are used in human and veterinary medicine to treat bacterial infections , as well as in animal husbandry , specifically poultry production .
Bacitracin is a polypeptide antibiotic derived from a bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, and acts against bacteria through the inhibition of cell wall synthesis. [6] It does this by inhibiting the removal of phosphate from lipid compounds, thus deactivating its function to transport peptidoglycan; the main component of bacterial cell membranes, to the microbial cell wall.
Glycopeptide antibiotics are a class of drugs of microbial origin that are composed of glycosylated cyclic or polycyclic nonribosomal peptides.Significant glycopeptide antibiotics include the anti-infective antibiotics vancomycin, teicoplanin, telavancin, ramoplanin, avoparcin and decaplanin, corbomycin, complestatin and the antitumor antibiotic bleomycin.