Biofilms and beta-lactam activity

The Survey of Genes Encoding Beta-Lactamases, in Escherichia Coli Resistant to Beta-Lactam and Non-Beta-Lactam Antibiotics

Objective(s) Resistance to the new generation of cephalosporins which is mediated by Extended-Spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) has been found among Escherichia coli isolates throughout the world. These resistance genes and their producers, the micro-organisms carrying beta-lactamases, are responsible for serious clinical and therapeutic problems among inpatients and it is necessary to pay more...

High beta-Lactamase Levels Change the Pharmacodynamics of beta-Lactam Antibiotics in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms

Beta-Lactam Antibiotics and Vancomycin Beta-lactam antibiotics

Anti-bacterial drugs have “selective toxicity”, that is they interact with a target present on the bacterial cell, the prokaryote, that is not present in the mammalian host, the eukaryote. For the ß-lactam drugs, this target is the cell wall. Mammalian cells lack cell walls, which for the bacteria are a critically important barrier protecting the organism from not only the vagaries of osmotic s...

Beta lactam hypersensitivities

Background Allergic reactions to drugs are often unpredictable and can lead to serious side effects such as anaphylactic shock. According to the hapten hypothesis, any drug with a molecular weight lower than 1000 daltons cannot induce an immune response by itself and must be bound to a protein. Antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells (DC), internalize hapten-protein conjugates and dig...

Thienamycin: new beta-lactam antibiotic with potent broad-spectrum activity.

Thienamycin, a new beta-lactam antibiotic, exhibited potent, broad-spectrum activity in vitro against gram-negative bacilli and gram-positive cocci, including many isolates resistant to currently available antibiotics. All isolates were inhibited at concentrations less than or equal to 25 mug/ml, with the exception of 12% of isolates of Enterobacter spp. and 3% of isolates of Serratia marcescen...