Pharmacology of Beta Lactam Antibiotics

Beta Lactam Antibiotics

This class of antibiotic agents, including penicillin derivatives, (penams), cephalosporins (cephems), monobactams, and carbapenems, is the most widely used antibiotic. In fact, more than half of the antibiotics that were commercially sold in 2003 were ?-lactam compounds. Beta lactam antibiotics are characterized by a molecular ?-lactam ring structure (Drawz & Bonomo, 2010). The beta lactam antibiotics inhibit the biosynthesis of the cell walls of bacterial organisms by interfering with the synthesis of peptidoglycan. . The penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) are the bacterial enzymes affected by beta lactam antibiotics, which means that beta lactams do not act against microbes that do not have cell walls containing peptidoglycan, such as chlamydiae, mycoplasmata, rickettsiae, and mycobacteria.

Pharmacotherapeutics

The ?-lactam antibiotics are indicated for the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections. When first introduced to the market, ?-lactam antibiotics were only effective against Gram-positive bacteria (Drawz &...
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