Antibiotics: An Overview

Front Cover
Pearson Education, Jan 18, 2011 - Education - 15 pages

This is the eBook version of the printed book.

This Element is an excerpt from Antibiotic Resistance: Understanding and Responding to an Emerging Crisis (9780131387737) by Karl Drlica and David S. Perlin. Available in print and digital formats.

What everyone needs to know about antibiotics: what they are, how they work, what they can do, and what they can’t do.

Antibiotics are selective poisons. They are relatively small molecules (about 20-100 times the size of water molecules) that interfere with normal life processes of microbes and viruses. Human cells differ enough from pathogens for antibiotics to act selectively. For example, our cells lack walls, whereas bacterial cells have them. Consequently, penicillin, which blocks cell wall synthesis, is specific to bacteria....

 

Contents

Section 1
28
Section 2
30
Section 3
31
Section 4
49
Section 5
59
Section 6
63
Section 7
65
Section 8
67
Section 9
72
Section 10
79
Section 11
80
Section 12
81

Common terms and phrases

23S rRNA active Acyclovir Agents and Chemotherapy aids2031 Consortium Alteration of 23S Amino acid Amino acid changes aminoacyl tRNA Amphotericin Antibacterial Agents antifungal Antimicrobial Agents Antiseptics antiviral agents Artemisinin bacteria bacterium Biochemical Antibiotic Examples block cause Cell wall synthesis chemical Chemotherapy 2009 Chloroquine Ciprofloxacin clinical Compound 606 Daptomycin derivatives DNA replication Domagk Drlica echinocandins efflux Ehrlich enzyme called ergosterol Fleming flucytosine fluoroquinolone-resistant fluoroquinolones folate fungal cells Fungal Infections gatifloxacin Gram-negative bacteria Gram-positive Herpes host cell human cells immune system Infectious Diseases 2008 Influenza inhibitors integrase interfere kill lethal levofloxacin Linezolid macrolides malaria microbes Molecular molecules moxifloxacin mRNA MRSA Mupirocin nalidixic acid nucleoside patients penicillin pneumoniae protein synthesis protozoan quinine quinolone r-protein receptors resistant mutants Ribavirin ribosome subunit ribosomes rifampicin side effects specific Staphylococcus aureus sulfa drugs Susceptibility Target Class Compounds Target Pathogen tetracycline topoisomerases toxic treatment triazoles Trypanosomes tuberculosis Vancomycin variety vesicle viral protein Virus particles

About the author (2011)

Karl Drlica, Ph.D., is a Principal Investigator at the Public Health Research Institute Center of the UMDNJ--New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ. His laboratory focuses on fluoroquinolone action and resistance with M. tuberculosis and other bacteria, including approaches to slowing the enrichment and amplification of resistant bacterial subpopulations. Dr. David S. Perlin is a Principal Investigator at the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI) of the UMDNJ--New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ. His laboratory explores mechanisms of antifungal drug resistance, rapid detection of bloodstream pathogens in high-risk patients, discovery of novel molecules to combat tuberculosis, and the development of small animal models for respiratory pathogens.

Bibliographic information

TitleAntibiotics: An Overview
FT Press Delivers Elements
AuthorsKarl S. Drlica, David S. Perlin
PublisherPearson Education, 2011
ISBN013268571X, 9780132685719
Length15 pages
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