| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
The most commonly-prescribed macrolide antibiotics are:
Others are: spiramycin (used for treating toxoplasmosis), ansamycin , oleandomycin , carbomycin and tylocine .
There is also a new class of antibiotics called ketolides that is structurally related to the macrolides. Ketolides such as telithromycin are used to fight respiratory tract infections caused by macrolide-resistant bacteria.
The drug Tacrolimus, which is used as an immunosuppresant, is also a macrolide. It has similar activity to cyclosporine. While it does have antibiotic properties, it is not approved for antibiotic usage due to its strong effects on the immune system.
Macrolides are used to treat infections such as respiratory tract infections and soft tissue infections. The antimicrobial spectrum of macrolides is slightly wider than that of penicillinPenicillin is a β-lactam antibiotic used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms. The name "penicillin" can either refer to several variants of penicillin available, or to the group of antibiot. Beta-hemolytic streptococci, pneumococci, staphylococci and enterococci are usually susceptible to macrolides. Unlike penicillin, macrolides have shown effective against mycoplasmagenitalium M. hominis M. pneumoniae etc. Mycoplasma is a genus of small bacteria which lack cell walls. Several species are pathogenic in humans, including M. pneumoniae which is an important cause of pneumonia and other respiratory disorders, and M., mycobacteria, some rickettsiaRickettsia felis Rickettsia prowazekii Rickettsia rickettsii Rickettsia typhi Bacteria of the genus Rickettsia are carried as parasites by many ticks, fleas, and lice, and cause diseases such as typhus, rickettsialpox, Brill-Zinsser disease, Boutonneuse f and chlamydiaChlamydia is currently one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases about 4 million cases of chlamydia occur in the USA each year. However, about half of all men and three-quarters of all women who have chlamydia have no symptoms and don't know th.
The mechanism of action of the macrolides is inhibition of bacterial protein synthesis by binding reversibly to the subunit 50S of the bacterial ribosome, thereby inhibiting translocation of peptidyl-t RNA. This action is mainly bacteriostatic, but can also be bactericidal in high concentrations. Macrolides tend to accumulate within leucocytes, and are therefore actually transported into the site of infection.