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Sterilant means a chemical agent which is used to sterilize critical medical devices or medical instruments. A sterilant kills all micro-organisms with the result that the sterility assurance level of a microbial survivor is less than 10^-6. Sterilant gases are not within this scope. [citation needed]
Microorganisms growing on an agar plate. Sterilization (British English: sterilisation) refers to any process that removes, kills, or deactivates all forms of life (particularly microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, spores, and unicellular eukaryotic organisms) and other biological agents (such as prions or viruses) present in fluid or on a specific surface or object. [1]
The supposed superiority of bactericidal agents over bacteriostatic agents is of little relevance when treating the vast majority of infections with gram-positive bacteria, particularly in patients with uncomplicated infections and noncompromised immune systems. Bacteriostatic agents have been effectively used for treatment that are considered ...
The main classes of antimicrobial agents are disinfectants (non-selective agents, such as bleach), which kill a wide range of microbes on non-living surfaces to prevent the spread of illness, antiseptics (which are applied to living tissue and help reduce infection during surgery), and antibiotics (which destroy microorganisms within the body).
A bacteriostatic agent or bacteriostat, abbreviated Bstatic, is a biological or chemical agent that stops bacteria from reproducing, while not necessarily killing them otherwise. Depending on their application, bacteriostatic antibiotics , disinfectants , antiseptics and preservatives can be distinguished.
CDC's Disinfection and Sterilization list of Chemical Disinfectants mentions and discusses substances such as: alcohol, chlorine and chlorine compounds, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, iodophors, ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA), peracetic acid, peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, phenolics, quaternary ammonium compounds, with ...
These antibiotics all have a common element in their molecular structure: a four-atom ring known as a beta-lactam (β-lactam) ring. Through hydrolysis , the enzyme lactamase breaks the β-lactam ring open, deactivating the molecule's antibacterial properties.
The name 'defensin' was coined in the mid-1980s, though the proteins have been called 'Cationic Antimicrobial Proteins,' 'Neutrophil peptides,' 'Gamma thionins' amongst others. [6] Proteins called 'defensins' are not all evolutionarily related to one another. [7] Instead fall into two broad superfamilies, each of which contains multiple families.