Amoxicillin, Augmentin, Doxycycline – the most widespread antibiotic!
Antibiotics are substances of natural or semi-synthetic origin. Antibiotics are obtained by extracting them from the colonies of fungi, bacteria, tissues, plants or animals. In many cases, the original molecule is undergone further chemical modifications to improve certain properties of the antibiotic. Such kind of antibiotics is called semi-synthetic.
Currently pharmaceutical industry can offer a number of different antibiotics. A wide variety of antibiotics required to classify them into several groups and categories.
The most widespread groups of antibiotics include:
- Penicillins
- Cephalosporins
- Macrolides
- Tetracyclines
- Fluorquinolones
- Aminoglycosides
Penicillins are obtained from colonies of mold fungus Penicillin. Action mechanism of all penicillin antibiotics consists in inhibiting cellular wall and thus suppressing bacterial growth and replication. Penicillins exert bactericidal action against a wide variety of pathogenic gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms. Penicillins possess high selectivity meaning that their action is spread only on pathogenic bacteria.
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AmoxicillinAmoxicillin is beta-lactam antibiotic used against a wide variety of microorganisms |
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AugmentinAugmentin is a combined medicatin containing amoxicillin and clavulanic acid. Augmentin act on bacteria that produce beta-lactamase |
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DoxycyclineDoxycycline is bacteriostatic antibiotic which is used to treat infections caused by susceptibe microorganisms |
Among penicillin antibiotics Amoxicillin is the most prescribed in clinical practice. Amoxicillin is a half-synthetic bactericidal acid-resistant antibiotic which is highly effective against the following microorganisms: Streptococcus pyogenes, Bacillus anthracis, Listeria monocytogenes, Helicobacter pylori, Clostridium tetani, Clostridium welchii, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and others.
Amoxicillin is indicated for the treatment of:
- Respiratory system infections
- Urogenital infections
- Infections of the gastrointestinal tract
- Infections of the skin and soft tissues
In spite of its high effectiveness and broad spectrum of antibacterial activity, Amoxicillin does not act on microorganisms that produce beta-lactamases. Beta-lactamases are substances produced by certain microorganisms which break beta-lactam ring making amoxicillin ineffective. In order to prevent the action of beta-lactamases on beta-lactam antibiotics there were developed chemical compound called beta-lactamse inhibitors. One of them is clavulanic acid usually coming in the form of potassium or sodium salt. Clavulanic acid is produced in combination with Amoxicillin under the brand name Augmentin.
Augmentin act on many microorganisms that product beta-lacamase and are resistant to Amoxicillin. In most cases Augmentin is irreplaceable antibiotics in the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections such as ENT (ear, nose and throat) infections, recrudescent tonsillitis, sinusitis, otitis media. These infections are most frequently caused by Streptococcus pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Streptococcus pyogenes.
Another group of antibiotics commonly used in medical practice are tetracyclines. Tetracyclines possess bacteriostatic action which is associated with inhibiting protein synthesis through the binding to 30S ribosomal subunits. Among tetracyclines Doxycycline is the most prescribed. Doxycycline is active against gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms: Streptococcus spp., Treponema spp., Staphylococcus spp., Klebsiella spp., Enterobacter spp. (including Е. aerugenes), Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae, Chlamydia spp., Mycoplasma spp., Ureaplasma urealyticum, Listeria monocytogenes, Rickettsia spp., Typhus exanthematicus, Escherichia coli, Shigella spp.
Doxycycline is actively used for the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections, acute bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchopneumonia, lung abscess, pleural emyema. Other common Doxycycline indications include: gastrointestinal and urogenital infections, skin and soft tissue infections, prophylaxis of postoperative infections.
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