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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.
Penicillin molecules are small enough to pass through the spaces of glycoproteins in the cell wall. For this reason Gram-positive bacteria are very susceptible to penicillin (as first evidenced by the discovery of penicillin in 1928 [46]). [47] Penicillin, or any other molecule, enters Gram-negative bacteria in a different manner. The bacteria ...
Bactericidals kill bacteria directly, whereas bacteriostatics prevent them from dividing. However, these classifications are based on laboratory behavior. The development of antibiotics has had a profound effect on the health of people for many years. Also, both people and animals have used antibiotics to treat infections and diseases.
Bacteriophages and their host ranges are extremely specific for certain bacteria, thus, unlike antibiotics, they do not disturb the host organism's intestinal microbiota. [201] Bacteriophages, also known as phages, infect and kill bacteria primarily during lytic cycles.
Antimicrobial resistance — or when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them — is considered “an urgent global public health threat,” with ...
Narrow-spectrum antibiotics have low propensity to induce bacterial resistance and are less likely to disrupt the microbiome (normal microflora). [3] On the other hand, indiscriminate use of broad-spectrum antibiotics may not only induce the development of bacterial resistance and promote the emergency of multidrug-resistant organisms, but also cause off-target effects due to dysbiosis.
Antibiotics only work for bacteria and do not affect viruses. Antibiotics work by slowing down the multiplication of bacteria or killing the bacteria. The most common classes of antibiotics used in medicine include penicillin , cephalosporins , aminoglycosides , macrolides , quinolones and tetracyclines .
Basically, if something does a good job at inactivating bacteria and viruses, it is working on the same building blocks of life—DNA, RNA, proteins, and lipids—that human cells are composed of ...