A nucleic acid inhibitor is a type of antibacterial that acts by inhibiting the production of nucleic acids. There are two major classes: DNA inhibitors and RNA inhibitors. [1] The antifungal flucytosine acts in a similar manner.
A nucleic acid inhibitor is a type of antibacterial that acts by inhibiting the production of nucleic acids. There are two major classes: DNA inhibitors and RNA inhibitors. [1] The antifungal flucytosine acts in a similar manner.
Classic DNA inhibitors such as the quinolones act upon DNA gyrase as a topoisomerase inhibitor. [2] Another group of DNA inhibitors, including nitrofurantoin and metronidazole, act upon anaerobic bacteria. [3] These act by generating metabolites that are incorporated into DNA strands, which then are more prone to breakage. [4] These drugs are selectively toxic to anaerobic organisms, but can affect human cells.[ citation needed ]
RNA inhibitors such as rifampin, act upon DNA-dependent RNA polymerase. [5]
Antifolates act primarily as inhibitors of both RNA and DNA, and are often grouped with nucleic acid inhibitors in textbooks. However, they also act indirectly as protein synthesis inhibitors (because tetrahydrofolate is also involved in the synthesis of amino acids serine and methionine), so they are sometimes considered as their own category, antimetabolites. [6] However, the term "antimetabolite", when used literally, can apply to many different classes of drugs.[ citation needed ]
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of such infections. They may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. A limited number of antibiotics also possess antiprotozoal activity. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses such as the common cold or influenza; drugs which inhibit growth of viruses are termed antiviral drugs or antivirals rather than antibiotics. They are also not effective against fungi; drugs which inhibit growth of fungi are called antifungal drugs.
Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main classes of nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). If the sugar is ribose, the polymer is RNA; if the sugar is the ribose derivative deoxyribose, the polymer is DNA.
Neomycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic that displays bactericidal activity against gram-negative aerobic bacilli and some anaerobic bacilli where resistance has not yet arisen. It is generally not effective against gram-positive bacilli and anaerobic gram-negative bacilli. Neomycin comes in oral and topical formulations, including creams, ointments, and eyedrops. Neomycin belongs to the aminoglycoside class of antibiotics that contain two or more amino sugars connected by glycosidic bonds.
An oligopeptide, often just called peptide, consists of two to twenty amino acids and can include dipeptides, tripeptides, tetrapeptides, and pentapeptides. Some of the major classes of naturally occurring oligopeptides include aeruginosins, cyanopeptolins, microcystins, microviridins, microginins, anabaenopeptins, and cyclamides. Microcystins are best studied, because of their potential toxicity impact in drinking water. A review of some oligopeptides found that the largest class are the cyanopeptolins (40.1%), followed by microcystins (13.4%).
Aminoglycoside is a medicinal and bacteriologic category of traditional Gram-negative antibacterial medications that inhibit protein synthesis and contain as a portion of the molecule an amino-modified glycoside (sugar). The term can also refer more generally to any organic molecule that contains amino sugar substructures. Aminoglycoside antibiotics display bactericidal activity against Gram-negative aerobes and some anaerobic bacilli where resistance has not yet arisen but generally not against Gram-positive and anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria.
Mupirocin, sold under the brand name Bactroban among others, is a topical antibiotic useful against superficial skin infections such as impetigo or folliculitis. It may also be used to get rid of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) when present in the nose without symptoms. Due to concerns of developing resistance, use for greater than ten days is not recommended. It is used as a cream or ointment applied to the skin.
The rifamycins are a group of antibiotics that are synthesized either naturally by the bacterium Amycolatopsis rifamycinica or artificially. They are a subclass of the larger family of ansamycins. Rifamycins are particularly effective against mycobacteria, and are therefore used to treat tuberculosis, leprosy, and mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections.
Rifampicin, also known as rifampin, is an ansamycin antibiotic used to treat several types of bacterial infections, including tuberculosis (TB), Mycobacterium avium complex, leprosy, and Legionnaires’ disease. It is almost always used together with other antibiotics with two notable exceptions: when given as a "preferred treatment that is strongly recommended" for latent TB infection; and when used as post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent Haemophilus influenzae type b and meningococcal disease in people who have been exposed to those bacteria. Before treating a person for a long period of time, measurements of liver enzymes and blood counts are recommended. Rifampicin may be given either by mouth or intravenously.
An antimetabolite is a chemical that inhibits the use of a metabolite, which is another chemical that is part of normal metabolism. Such substances are often similar in structure to the metabolite that they interfere with, such as the antifolates that interfere with the use of folic acid; thus, competitive inhibition can occur, and the presence of antimetabolites can have toxic effects on cells, such as halting cell growth and cell division, so these compounds are used as chemotherapy for cancer.
Cycloheximide is a naturally occurring fungicide produced by the bacterium Streptomyces griseus. Cycloheximide exerts its effects by interfering with the translocation step in protein synthesis, thus blocking eukaryotic translational elongation. Cycloheximide is widely used in biomedical research to inhibit protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells studied in vitro. It is inexpensive and works rapidly. Its effects are rapidly reversed by simply removing it from the culture medium.
Nucleoside analogues are nucleosides which contain a nucleic acid analogue and a sugar. Nucleotide analogs are nucleotides which contain a nucleic acid analogue, a sugar, and a phosphate group with one to three phosphates.
Filamentation is the anomalous growth of certain bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, in which cells continue to elongate but do not divide. The cells that result from elongation without division have multiple chromosomal copies.
Aminocoumarin is a class of antibiotics that act by an inhibition of the DNA gyrase enzyme involved in the cell division in bacteria. They are derived from Streptomyces species, whose best-known representative – Streptomyces coelicolor – was completely sequenced in 2002. The aminocoumarin antibiotics include:
Antimicrobial pharmacodynamics is the relationship between the concentration of an antibiotic and its ability to inhibit vital processes of endo- or ectoparasites and microbial organisms. This branch of pharmacodynamics relates the concentration of an anti-infective agent to its effect, specifically to its antimicrobial effect.
Antifolates are a class of antimetabolite medications that antagonise (that is, block) the actions of folic acid (vitamin B9). Folic acid's primary function in the body is as a cofactor to various methyltransferases involved in serine, methionine, thymidine and purine biosynthesis. Consequently, antifolates inhibit cell division, DNA/RNA synthesis and repair and protein synthesis. Some such as proguanil, pyrimethamine and trimethoprim selectively inhibit folate's actions in microbial organisms such as bacteria, protozoa and fungi. The majority of antifolates work by inhibiting dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR).
EF-G is a prokaryotic elongation factor involved in protein translation. As a GTPase, EF-G catalyzes the movement (translocation) of transfer RNA (tRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) through the ribosome.
A protein synthesis inhibitor is a compound that stops or slows the growth or proliferation of cells by disrupting the processes that lead directly to the generation of new proteins.
Dihydropteroate synthase inhibitors are drugs that inhibit the action of dihydropteroate synthase. They include sulfonamides, dapsone, and para-aminosalicylic acid.
Bacterial small RNAs (bsRNA) are small RNAs produced by bacteria; they are 50- to 500-nucleotide non-coding RNA molecules, highly structured and containing several stem-loops. Numerous sRNAs have been identified using both computational analysis and laboratory-based techniques such as Northern blotting, microarrays and RNA-Seq in a number of bacterial species including Escherichia coli, the model pathogen Salmonella, the nitrogen-fixing alphaproteobacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, marine cyanobacteria, Francisella tularensis, Streptococcus pyogenes, the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, and the plant pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae. Bacterial sRNAs affect how genes are expressed within bacterial cells via interaction with mRNA or protein, and thus can affect a variety of bacterial functions like metabolism, virulence, environmental stress response, and structure.
Ceftolozane/tazobactam, sold under the brand name Zerbaxa, is a combination antibiotic medication used for the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections in adults. Ceftolozane is a cephalosporin antibiotic, developed for the treatment of infections with gram-negative bacteria that are resistant to conventional antibiotics. It was studied for urinary tract infections, intra-abdominal infections and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia.
Major chemical drug groups – based upon the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System | |
|---|---|
| gastrointestinal tract / metabolism (A) | |
| blood and blood forming organs (B) | |
| cardiovascular system (C) | |
| skin (D) | |
| genitourinary system (G) | |
| endocrine system (H) | |
| infections and infestations (J, P, QI) | |
| malignant disease (L01–L02) | |
| immune disease (L03–L04) | |
| muscles, bones, and joints (M) | |
| brain and nervous system (N) |
|
| respiratory system (R) | |
| sensory organs (S) | |
| other ATC (V) | |
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