Penicillin and Macrolides
Course: Drug DevelopmentModule code: MT 5004Assignment: Essay 1 |
Penicillin and Macrolides – The ANTIBIOTICS
Penicillin and Macrolides, each having different properties belong to the same group of medicine called ANTIBIOTICs. Antibiotics refer to the chemical substance secreted or produced by various species of micro-organisms which are capable of inhibiting or killing the bacteria. Antibiotics have enabled the effective treatment of infections including life threatening diseases ranging from respiratory diseases to sexually transmitted diseases (Rang et al.,2007). An antibiotic acts by either limiting or stopping the growth of bacteria. It accomplishes this by probably interfering with the cell wall of the bacteria while having minimal effect on the normal body cells. Classifying bacteria into classes helps in identifying the bacterial species and hence they are classified as gram positive bacteria and gram negative bacteria based upon their staining techniques.
Penicillin is the oldest and the best known antibiotic. Basically, it is an antibiotic compound derived from the moulds Penicillium notatum and Penicillin chrysogenum and is active in opposition to gram positive bacteria and few gram negative bacteria. Penicillin turns out to have two rings fused together; one being the β-lactam ring and the other Thiazolidine ring (Ref figure 1) ( β-Lactam Antibiotics: Penicillins). |
Figure 1: General Structure of Penicillin |
All Penicillins have the same fundamental structure, only the group R varies. Penicillin is generally classified as bio-synthetic and semi-synthetic. Bio-synthetic refers to the naturally occurring penicillin. These are the very first agents in the family of penicillin introduced for clinical use. They include Penicillin G, Penicillin V and Benzyl Penicillin. These prove to be effective against Gram positive bacteria like meningococcus and also prove useful in patients with oral-cavity infection. Certain chemical alterations in the
Penicillin and Macrolides – The ANTIBIOTICS
Penicillin and Macrolides, each having different properties belong to the same group of medicine called ANTIBIOTICs. Antibiotics refer to the chemical substance secreted or produced by various species of micro-organisms which are capable of inhibiting or killing the bacteria. Antibiotics have enabled the effective treatment of infections including life threatening diseases ranging from respiratory diseases to sexually transmitted diseases (Rang et al.,2007). An antibiotic acts by either limiting or stopping the growth of bacteria. It accomplishes this by probably interfering with the cell wall of the bacteria while having minimal effect on the normal body cells. Classifying bacteria into classes helps in identifying the bacterial species and hence they are classified as gram positive bacteria and gram negative bacteria based upon their staining techniques.
Penicillin is the oldest and the best known antibiotic. Basically, it is an antibiotic compound derived from the moulds Penicillium notatum and Penicillin chrysogenum and is active in opposition to gram positive bacteria and few gram negative bacteria. Penicillin turns out to have two rings fused together; one being the β-lactam ring and the other Thiazolidine ring (Ref figure 1) ( β-Lactam Antibiotics: Penicillins). |
Figure 1: General Structure of Penicillin |
All Penicillins have the same fundamental structure, only the group R varies. Penicillin is generally classified as bio-synthetic and semi-synthetic. Bio-synthetic refers to the naturally occurring penicillin. These are the very first agents in the family of penicillin introduced for clinical use. They include Penicillin G, Penicillin V and Benzyl Penicillin. These prove to be effective against Gram positive bacteria like meningococcus and also prove useful in patients with oral-cavity infection. Certain chemical alterations in the
References: * β-Lactam Antibiotics: Penicillins." The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. Chapter 153. (http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/section13/chapter153/153b.jsp) * Chain E. B. (1945) The Chemical Structure of the Penicillins. Nobel Lecture * (http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1945/chain-lecture.pdf) * Lee B. (2004) Penicillin: Its discovery, and early development, Seminars in Pediatric Infectious diseases 15(1), Pages 52-57. * L.S. Goodman and A. Gilman (2003) The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 5th ed., Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, * MacGeer A. And Low D.E. (2003) Is Resistance futile? Nature Medicine 9, 390-392. * Moore, Greogry A., and Ollie Nygren. (2004) Penicillins. The Nordic Expert Group for Criteria Documentation of Health Risks from Chemicals. (http://ebib.arbetslivsinstitutet.se/ah/2004/ah2004_06.pdf) * Rammelkamp C. And Kirby W. (1944) Factors determining the dosage of penicillin in treatment of infections. The bulletin, pages 656-673. * Rang H.P., Dale M.M., Ritter J.M. and Flower R.J. (2007) Pharmacology Sixth Edition Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, China.