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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.
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 antiseptic (Greek: ἀντί, romanized: anti, lit. 'against' [1] and σηπτικός, sēptikos, 'putrefactive' [2]) is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue to reduce the possibility of sepsis, infection, or putrefaction.
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.
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.
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]
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]
For example, they can be found on the tongue, skin, cornea, salivary glands, kidneys, esophagus, and respiratory tract. It has been suggested (but also challenged) that some of the pathology of cystic fibrosis arises from the inhibition of β-defensin activity on the epithelial surfaces of the lungs and trachea due to higher salt content.