Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
An antimicrobial is an agent that kills microorganisms (microbicide) or stops their growth (bacteriostatic agent). [1] Antimicrobial medicines can be grouped according to the microorganisms they act primarily against. For example, antibiotics are used against bacteria, and antifungals are used against fungi. They can also be classified ...
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.
The following is a list of antibiotics.The highest division between antibiotics is bactericidal and bacteriostatic.Bactericidals kill bacteria directly, whereas bacteriostatics prevent them from dividing.
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.
A colored electron microscopy image of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (), a bacterium commonly targeted by broad-spectrum antibioticsA broad-spectrum antibiotic is an antibiotic that acts on the two major bacterial groups, Gram-positive and Gram-negative, [1] or any antibiotic that acts against a wide range of disease-causing bacteria. [2]
An illustration shows the different effects of the bacteriostatic agent and bactericidal agent. A bacteriostatic agent or bacteriostat, abbreviated Bstatic, is a biological or chemical agent that stops bacteria from reproducing, while not necessarily killing them otherwise.
The antimicrobial spectrum of an antibiotic can be determined by testing its antimicrobial activity against a wide range of microbes in vitro. Nonetheless, the range of microorganisms which an antibiotic can kill or inhibit in vivo may not always be the same as the antimicrobial spectrum based on data collected in vitro. [2] [5]
The simplest tetracycline with measurable antibacterial activity is 6-deoxy-6-demethyltetracycline and its structure is often considered to be the minimum pharmacophore for the tetracycle class of antibiotics. [2] [31] C5-C9 can be modified to make derivatives with varying antibacterial activity. [30] [29]