Antibiotic

An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. 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 contradistinction to "chemotherapeutic agents", which were purely synthetic. Nowadays the term "antibiotic" is also applied to synthetic antimicrobials, such as the sulfonamides. Antibiotics are small molecules with a molecular weight less than 2000. They are not enzymes.

External links

• Antibiotic News from Genome News Network (GNN)
• Bruce Sterling's Bitter Resistance
• JAAPA: New antibiotics useful in primary care
• A new method for controlling bacterial activity without antibiotics - Research conducted at the Hebrew University

Resources

• Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics