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Antibiotic
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In common usage, an antibiotic is a substance or compound (also called chemotherapeutic agent) that kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria.
Antibiotics belong to the group of antimicrobial compounds used to treat infections caused by microorganisms, including fungi and protozoa.
The term "antibiotic" (from the – anti, "against" and – bios, "life") was coined by Selman Waksman in 1942 to describe any substance produced by a micro-organism that is antagonistic to the growth of other micro-organisms in high dilution.
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Encyclopedia
In common usage, an antibiotic is a substance or compound (also called chemotherapeutic agent) that kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria.
Antibiotics belong to the group of antimicrobial compounds used to treat infections caused by microorganisms, including fungi and protozoa.
The term "antibiotic" (from the – anti, "against" and – bios, "life") was coined by Selman Waksman in 1942 to describe any substance produced by a micro-organism that is antagonistic to the growth of other micro-organisms in high dilution. This original definition excluded naturally occurring substances, such as gastric juice and hydrogen peroxide (they kill bacteria but are not produced by micro-organisms), and also excluded synthetic compounds such as the sulfonamides (which are antimicrobial agents). Many antibiotics are relatively small molecules with a molecular weight less than 2000 Da.
With advances in medicinal chemistry, most antibiotics are now modified chemically from original compounds found in nature, as is the case with beta-lactams (which include the penicillins, produced by fungi in the genus Penicillium, the cephalosporins, and the carbapenems). Some antibiotics are still produced and isolated from living organisms, such as the aminoglycosides; in addition, many more have been created through purely synthetic means, such as the quinolones.
History of antibiotics
Although potent antibiotic compounds for treatment of human diseases caused by bacteria (such as tuberculosis, bubonic plague, or leprosy) were not isolated and identified until the twentieth century, the first known use of antibiotics was by the ancient Chinese over 2,500 years ago. Many other ancient cultures, including the ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks and medieval Arabs already used molds and plants to treat infections, owing to the production of antibiotic substances by these organisms, a phenomenon known as antibiosis
Quinine became widely used as a therapeutic agent in the 17th century for the treatment of malaria, the disease caused by Plasmodium falciparum, a protozoan parasite.
Antibiosis was first described in 1877 in bacteria when Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch observed that an airborne bacillus could inhibit the growth of Bacillus anthracis. The antibiotic properties of Penicillium sp. were first described in England by John Tyndall in 1875. However, his work went by without much notice from the scientific community until Alexander Fleming's discovery of Penicillin.
Modern research on antibiotic therapy began in Germany with the development of the narrow-spectrum antibiotic Salvarsan by Paul Ehrlich in 1909, for the first time allowing an efficient treatment of the then-widespread problem of Syphilis. The drug, which was also effective against other spirochaetal infections, is no longer in use in modern medicine.
Antibiotics were further developed in Britain following the discovery of Penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. More than ten years later, Ernst Chain and Howard Florey became interested in his work, and came up with the purified form of penicillin. The three shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine. In 1939, Rene Dubos isolated gramicidin, one of the first commercially manufactured antibiotics in use during World War II to prove highly effective in treating wounds and ulcers. Florey credited Dubos for reviving his research on penicillin.
Prontosil, the first commercially available antibacterial antibiotic was developed by a research team led by Gerhard Domagk (who received the 1939 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his efforts) at the Bayer Laboratories of the IG Farben conglomerate in Germany. Prontosil had a relatively broad effect against Gram-positive cocci but not against enterobacteria. The discovery and development of this first sulfonamide drug opened the era of antibiotics.
Antimicrobial pharmacodynamics
The environment of individual antibiotics varies with the location of the infection, the ability of the antibiotic to reach the infection site, and the ability of the microbe to inactivate or excrete the antibiotic. At the highest level, antibiotics can be classified as either bactericidal or bacteriostatic. Bactericidals kill bacteria directly where bacteriostatics prevent cell division. However, these classifications are based on laboratory behavior; in practice, both of these are capable of ending a bacterial infection. The bactericidal activity of antibiotics may be growth phase dependent and in most but not all cases action of many bactericidal antibiotics requires ongoing cell activity and cell division for the drugs' killing activity. The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration are used to measure in vitro activity antimicrobial and is an excellent indicator of antimicrobial potency. However, in clinical practice these measurements alone are insufficient to predict clinical outcome. By combining the pharmacokinetic profile of antibiotic with the antimicrobial activity several pharmacological parameters appear to be significant markers of drug efficacy. The activity of antibiotics may be concentration-dependent and characteristic antimicrobial activity increases with the progressively higher antibiotic concentrations. They may also be time-dependent where the antimicrobial activity does not increase with increasing antibiotic concentrations, however it is critical that the minimum inhibitory serum concentrations is maintained for a certain length of time.
Administration
Oral antibiotics are simply ingested, while intravenous antibiotics are used in more serious cases, such as deep-seated systemic infections. Antibiotics may also sometimes be administered topically, as with eye drops or ointments.
Antibiotic classes
Unlike many previous treatments for infections, which often consisted of administering chemical compounds such as strychnine and arsenic, with high toxicity also against mammals, most antibiotics from microbes have fewer side-effects, and high effective target activity. Most anti-bacterial antibiotics do not have activity against viruses, fungi, or other microbes. Anti-bacterial 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 wide range of bacteria.
Antibiotics which target the bacterial cell wall (penicillins, cephalosporins), or cell membrane (polymixins), or interfere with essential bacterial enzymes (quinolones, sulfonamides) usually are bactericidal in nature. Those which target protein synthesis such as the aminoglycosides, macrolides and tetracyclines are usually bacteriostatic.
In the last few years three new classes of antibiotics have been brought into clinical use. This follows a 40-year hiatus in discovering new classes of antibiotic compounds. These new antibiotics are of the following three classes: cyclic lipopeptides (daptomycin), glycylcyclines (tigecycline), and oxazolidinones (linezolid). Tigecycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, while the two others are used for Gram-positive infections. These developments show promise as a means to counteract the growing bacterial resistance to existing antibiotics.
Production
Since the first pioneering efforts of Florey and Chain in 1939, the importance of antibiotics to medicine has led to much research into discovering and producing them. The process of production usually involves screening of wide ranges of microorganisms, testing and modification. Production is carried out using fermentation, usually in strongly aerobic form.
Side effects
Side effects are many, varied and can be very serious depending on the antibiotics used and the microbial organisms targeted. Adverse effects can range from fever and nausea to major allergic reactions including photodermatitis. One of the more common side effects is diarrhoea, sometimes caused by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium difficile, which results from the antibiotic disrupting the normal balance of the intestinal flora, Such overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria may be alleviated by ingesting probiotics during a course of antibiotics. . An antibiotic-induced disruption of the population of the bacteria normally present as constituents of the normal vaginal flora may also occur, and may lead to overgrowth of yeast species of the genus Candida in the vulvo-vaginal area. Other side effects can result from interaction with other drugs, such as elevated risk of tendon damage from administration of a quinolone antibiotic with a systemic corticosteroid.
Drug-Drug interactions
Contraceptive pill
Hypothetically, interference of some antibiotics with the efficiency of birth control pills is thought to occurs in two ways. Modification of the intestinal gut flora resulting in the reduced absorption of the estrogens and induction of hepatic liver enzymes which metabolise the pills active ingredients faster may affect the pill's usefulness. However, there have been no conclusive studies that proved that disruption of the gut flora affects contraception; on the contrary, the majority of the studies indicate that antibiotics do not interfere with contraception., even though there is a possibility that a small percentage of women may experience decreased effectiveness of birth control pills while taking an antibiotic. Interaction with the combined oral contraceptive pill through induction of hepatic enzymes by the antifungal medication griseofulvin and the broad-spectrum antibiotic rifampicin has been shown to occur. It is recommended that extra contraceptive measures are applied during antimicrobial therapy using these antimicrobials.
Alcohol
Alcohol can interfere with the activity or metabolization of antibiotics. It may affect the activity of liver enzymes, which break down the antibiotics. Moreover, certain antibiotics, including metronidazole, tinidazole, co-trimoxazole, cephamandole, ketoconazole, latamoxef, cefoperazone, cefmenoxime, and furazolidone, chemically react with alcohol, leading to serious side effects, which include severe vomiting, nausea, and shortness of breath. Alcohol consumption while taking such antibiotics is therefore explicitly prohibited. Additionally, serum levels of doxycycline and erythromycin succinate may, in certain circumstances, be significantly reduced by alcohol consumption.
Antibiotic resistance
The emergence of antibiotic resistance is an evolutionary process that is based on selection for organisms that have enhanced ability to survive doses of antibiotics that would previously been lethal. Antibiotics like Penicillin and Erythromycin which used to be one-time miracle cures are now less effective because bacteria have become more resistant. Antibiotics themselves act as a selective pressure which allows the growth of resistant bacteria within a population and inhibits susceptible bacteria. Antibiotic selection of pre-existing antibiotic resistant mutants within bacterial populations was demonstrated in 1943 by the Luria-Delbrück experiment. Survival of bacteria often results from an inheritable resistance. Any antibiotic resistance may impose a biological cost and the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria may be hampered by the reduced fitness associated with the resistance which proves disadvantageous for survival of the bacteria when antibiotic is not present. Additional mutations, however, may compensate for this fitness cost and aids the survival of these bacteria.
The underlying molecular mechanisms leading to antibiotic resistance can vary. Intrinsic resistance may naturally occur as a result of the bacteria's genetic makeup. The bacterial chromosome may fail to encode a protein which the antibiotic targets. Acquired resistance results from a mutation in the bacterial chromosome or the acquisition of extra-chromosomal DNA. Antibiotic resistant bacteria have evolved resistance mechanisms which have been shown to be similar to those antibiotic-producing strains. The spread of antibiotic resistance mechanisms occurs through vertical transmission of inherited mutations from previous generations and genetic recomination of DNA by horizontal genetic exchange. Antibiotic resistance exchanged between different bacteria by plasmids that carry genes which encode antibiotic resistance which may result in co-resistance to multiple antibiotics. These plasmids can carry different genes with diverse resistance mechanisms to unrelated antibiotics but because they are located on the same plasmid multiple antibiotic resistance to more than one antibiotic is transferred. Alternatively, cross-resistance to other antibiotics within the bacteria results when the same resistance mechanism is responsible for resistance to more than one antibiotic is selected for.
Antibiotic misuse
The overuse of antibiotics like penicillin and erythromycin which used to be one-time miracle cures were associated with emerging resistance since the 1950s. Therapeutic usage of antibiotics in hospitals has been seen to be associated with increases in multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Common forms of antibiotic misuse include failure to take into account the patient's weight and history of prior antibiotic use when prescribing, since both can strongly affect the efficacy of an antibiotic prescription, failure to take the entire prescribed course of the antibiotic, failure to prescribe or take the course of treatment at fairly precise correct daily intervals (e.g. "every 8 hours" rather than merely "3x per day"), or failure to rest for sufficient recovery to allow clearance of the infecting organism. These practices may facilitate the development of bacterial populations with antibiotic resistance. Inappropriate antibiotic treatment is another common form of antibiotic misuse. A common example is the prescription and use of antibiotics to treat viral infections such as the common cold that have no effect.
In agriculture, associated antibiotic resistance with the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animals resulted in their restricted use in the UK in the 1970 (Swann report 1969). Currently there is a EU wide ban on the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics as growth promoters. It is estimated that greater than 70% of the antibiotics used in U.S. are given to feed animals (e.g. chickens, pigs and cattle) in the absence of disease. Antibiotic use in food animal production has been associated with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria including Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus spp. Evidence from some US and European studies suggest that these resistant bacteria cause infections in humans that do not respond to commonly prescribed antibiotics. In response to these practices and attendant problems, several organizations (e.g. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), American Public Health Association (APHA) and the American Medical Association (AMA)) have called for restrictions on antibiotic use in food animal production and an end to all non-therapeutic uses. However, delays in regulatory and legislative actions to limit the use of antibiotics are common, and may include resistance to these changes by industries using or selling antibiotics, as well as time spent on research to establish causal links between antibiotic use and emergence of untreatable bacterial diseases. Two federal bills (S.742 and H.R. 2562) aimed at phasing out non-therapeutic antibiotics in US food animal production were proposed but not passed. These bills were endorsed by public health and medical organizations including the American Holistic Nurses’ Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association (APHA). The EU has banned the use of antibiotics as growth promotional agents since 2003.
One study on respiratory tract infections found "physicians were more likely to prescribe antibiotics to patients who they believed expected them, although they correctly identified only about 1 in 4 of those patients". Multifactorial interventions aimed at both physicians and patients can reduce inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics. Delaying antibiotics for 48 hours while observing for spontaneous resolution of respiratory tract infections may reduce antibiotic usage; however, this strategy may reduce patient satisfaction.
Excessive use of prophylactic antibiotics in travelers may also be classified as misuse.
Resistance modifying agents
One solution to combat resistance currently being researched is the development of pharmaceutical compounds that would revert multiple antibiotic resistance. These so called resistance modifying agents may target and inhibit MDR mechanisms, rendering the bacteria susceptible to antibiotics to which they were previously resistant. These compounds targets include among others
Beyond antibiotics
The comparative ease of identifying compounds which safely cured bacterial infections was more difficult to duplicate in treatments of fungal and viral infections. Antibiotic research led to great strides in the knowledge of biochemistry, establishing large differences between the cellular and molecular physiology of the bacterial cell and that of the mammalian cell. This explained the observation that many compounds that are toxic to bacteria are non-toxic to human cells. In contrast, the basic biochemistries of the fungal cell and the mammalian cell are much more similar. This restricts the development and use of therapeutic compounds that attack a fungal cell, while not harming mammalian cells. Similar problems exist in antibiotic treatments of viral diseases. Human viral metabolic biochemistry is very closely similar to human biochemistry, and the possible targets of antiviral compounds are restricted to very few components unique to a mammalian virus.
Research into bacteriophages for use as antibiotics is presently ongoing. Several types of bacteriophage appear to exist that are specific for each bacterial taxonomic group or species. Research into bacteriophages for medicinal use is just beginning, but has led to advances in microscopic imaging. While bacteriophages provide a possible solution to the problem of antibiotic resistance, there is no clinical evidence yet that they can be deployed as therapeutic agents to cure disease.
Phage therapy, the use of particular viruses to attack bacteria, has been used in the past on humans in the US and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, but these treatments had mixed results. With the discovery of penicillin in the 1940s, Europe and the US changed therapeutic strategies to using antibiotics. However, in the former Soviet Union phage therapies continued to be studied. In the Republic of Georgia, the Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology & Virology continues to research the use of phage therapy. Various companies and foundations in North America and Europe are currently researching phage therapies. However, phage are living and reproducing; concerns about genetic engineering in freely released viruses currently limit certain aspects of phage therapy.
Bacteriocins are also a growing alternative to the classic small-molecule antibiotics . Different classes of bacteriocins have different potential as therapeutic agents. Small molecule bacteriocins (microcins, for example, and lantibiotics) may be similar to the classic antibiotics; colicin-like bacteriocins are more likely to be narrow-spectrum, demanding new molecular diagnostics prior to therapy but also not raising the spectre of resistance to the same degree. One drawback to the large molecule antibiotics is that they will have relative difficulty crossing membranes and travelling systemically throughout the body. For this reason, they are most often proposed for application topically or gastrointestinally. Because bacteriocins are peptides, they are more readily engineered than small molecules. This may permit the generation of cocktails and dynamically improved antibiotics that are modified to overcome resistance.
Probiotics are another alternative that goes beyond traditional antibiotics by employing a live culture which may establish itself as a symbiont, competing, inhibiting, or simply interfering with colonization by pathogens. It may produce antibiotics or bacteriocins, essentially providing the drug in vivo and in situ, potentially avoiding the side effects of systemic administration.
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