Antibiotics and Its Types

Antibiotics are the group of medications that are use to treat bacterial infections. They include the chemical substance that is obtained from the microorganism. This way microorganisms are used to treat the infections caused by the microorganisms. Antibiotics kill or inhibits the growth the bacteria. Antibiotics basically are used to cure the infections caused only by bacteria, but few other antibiotics now are also available to cure fungal or protozoa infections. Viral infections are not treated by the antibiotics. They are the most frequently prescribed medications against bacterial infection, no other medication is found to be as useful against bacteria. Antibiotics are derived from the bacterial sources and are used against the bacterial infections. Antibiotics sabotage the bacterial infections completely.

Both gram positive or gram negative strains of bacterial infections can be cured by the antibiotics. Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial infections can be cured with the help of the antibiotics. Whatever may be the severity of bacterial infection you can cure it with the help of the antibiotic medicines.

Antibiotics eradicates the bacterial infection following methods
•    Antibiotics works by stopping bacteria from forming their cell walls
•    They kill bacterial cells by disorganizing the outer membranes
•    Antibiotics destroys bacteria by interfering with the process of translation in protein synthesis
•    Antibiotics blocks the division and growth of cells by inhibiting synthesis of DNA and RNA

Types of antibiotics are considered on the bacteria it is killing. Many scientists have classified bacteria differently, but the main and most acceptable are only two, structure classification and based on activity (bactericidal and bacteriostatic). Bactericidal means the drug that eradicates the bacterial colonies and bacteriostatic means the drug that inhibits the replication of the bacteria. Accordingly to the structural classification antibiotics are classified in following groups.

Penicillins

This is the most primitive category of the drugs. It was the first antibiotic to be discovered. They are generally bactericidal in nature. They work on the phenomenon of destroying the bacteria completely rather than only stopping their multiplication. This group includes penicillin, amoxicillin, and ampicillin.

Cephalosporins
They are closely like penicillin but differ due to the addition of beta-lactum antibiotics. As their name suggests “cepha” means diversely acting antibiotics. They are either bacteriostatic or bactericidal in nature. They are effective against the anaerobic bacteria which no other antibiotic is effective in. They are used to treat used to treat meningitis and encephalitis.

Sulfonamides

These the antibiotic drugs including the sulfonamide group. These drugs are very carefully given because sulponamide allergies are found to be very common among the people. These are bacteriostatic drugs in nature. They don’t kill the bacteria; they just stop the multiplication of the bacterial colonies.

Fluroquinolones

Fluroquinolones are the synthetic antibacterial agents that are not derived from the bacteria. They are generally synthesized in the laboratory and no bacterial involvement was required for it. Ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, and clarithromycin are the drugs includes under this category of medicines.

Tetracyclines

They are antibiotics with the chemical structure having four rings thus named as tetracycline. They are derived from the Streptomyces bacteria. These bacteria are not is much use because many people are allergic to it. Along with the bacterial infections they are also found to be affective against rickettsia and amebic parasites.

Macrolides

These antibiotics are called macrolides as they have a macrocyclic lactone chemical structure. These bacteria include both bacteriostatic as well as bactericidal bacteria. These bacteria are newly developed form of the bacteria with lesser side effects in comparison to others. Erythromycin is the most famous antibiotic belonging to this group.

Aminoglycosides

Aminoglycosides are antibiotics that include sugar group and amino group in combination. This antibiotic is effective against very less bacteria. Aminoglycosides are derived from the bacteria of the Streptomyces genus. Gentamicin, kanamycin, and neomycin are the famous medicines belonging to this category of antibiotics.