What is an antibiotic comprised of?

Answer 1

Antibiotic is a class of medical drugs to eradicate bacterial.There is many subclasses based on the mechanism of action or the type of bacteria antibiotic is managing to erase.Special precautions must be taken for patients under the treatment by antibiotics as the proper dose, side effects and contraindications...etc

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Answer 2

An antibiotic is comprised of the active ingredient along with various soluble and insoluble fillers plus a few other things that make up the formulation. Typically the formulations you will see include capsules or tablets (although solutions etc are also possible).
The active ingredient is typically a synthetic molecule that belongs to various classes of 'antibiotic' such as the penicillins (most common), cephalosporins and so on. Their mechanism of action varies. The penicillins work by affecting the way the bacteria maintain their cell wall. Some antibiotics are combined with other active ingredients to fight antibiotic-resistant strains. Some strains of bacteria are resitant to almost all known medications. This is why GP's don't write scripts for antibiotics willy-nilly. We are producing resitant strains by over use of antibiotics hence the big reserach effort to find new and novel antibiotics...

Answer 3

An antibiotic is a drug that interferes with the cellular functions of bacteria, therefore killing the bacteria (baterioside), or preventing the bacteria from reproducing (bacteriostatic).

Common mechanisms of action include, but are not limited to, inhibition of cell wall synthesis, or interrupting bacterial protein synthesis by attaching to 70s ribosomes. In some cases antibiotics will prevent the conversion of PABA to folic acid within the prokaryote.

The above actions harm the bacteria (prokaryote) but spare the human cell (eukaryote). The prokaryotic cell contains 70s ribosomes and a cell wall, and this is what some of the antibiotics target. Eukaryotic human cells do not contain 70s ribosomes (except for mitochondrion), or a cell wall; therefore these types of antibiotics (generally penicillins, cephalosporins, and tetracyclines), target mainly prokaryotic cells.

Sulfa drugs, which inhibit folic acid synthesis in prokaryotes, do not affect the host’s natural flora because the host’s natural flora absorbs folic acid from the host; thus, Sulfa drugs are selective for mainly the invading bacteria.

Answer 4

An antibiotic is a drug that kills or prevents the growth of bacteria. They have no effect against viruses, fungi, or parasites. Antibiotics are one class of antimicrobials, a larger group which also includes anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can be used to treat infections. The term, coined by Selman Waksman, originally described only those formulations derived from living organisms, in contrast to "chemotherapeutic agents", which are purely synthetic. Nowadays the term "antibiotic" is also applied to synthetic antimicrobials, such as the sulfa drugs. Antibiotics are generally small molecules with a molecular weight less than 2000. They are not enzymes. Some antibiotics have been derived from mould, for example the penicillin class.
Unlike previous treatments for infections, which included poisons such as strychnine and arsenic, antibiotics were labelled "magic bullets": drugs which targeted disease without harming the host. Conventional antibiotics are not effective in viral, fungal and other nonbacterial infections, and individual antibiotics vary widely in their effectiveness on various types of bacteria. Antibiotics can be categorized based on their target specificity: "narrow-spectrum" antibiotics target particular types of bacteria, such as Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria, while broad-spectrum antibiotics affect a larger range of bacteria

Answer 5

An antibiotic is a drug that kills or prevents the growth of bacteria. They have no effect against viruses, fungi, or parasites. Antibiotics are one class of antimicrobials, a larger group which also includes anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can be used to treat infections.

They are mostly developed from microorganisms like fungi,bacteria etc which produce metabolites which are toxins to the microbe against which the antibiotic is being used. They are generally complex organic molecules.

Answer 6

The antibiotic is comprised of a cyclodecapeptide core, an exocyclic amino acid and a fatty-acid residue.

Answer 7

There are hundreds of antibiotics. All are complex organic molecules, many derived from microbial sources. They are either cidal which means they kill the target organism, or static which means they hinder its ability to grow or reproduce. You can look nearly all of them up on Yahoo search, or get Lange's Pharmacology review (Alibris.com) for more info.