Antibiotics: Challenges, Mechanisms, Opportunities

A chemocentric view of the molecular structures of antibiotics, their origins, actions, and major categories of resistance

Antibiotics: Challenges, Mechanisms, Opportunities is an essential resource that delves into the world of antibiotics as small organic molecules derived from both natural and synthetic sources. This comprehensive textbook emphasizes the importance of understanding the chemical scaffolds and functional group structures of key classes of clinically useful antibiotics. Gaining insight into these aspects is critical for comprehending how antibiotics selectively interact with bacterial targets.

Key Topics Covered in This Textbook

• Detailed exploration of how major classes of antibiotics interact with five robust bacterial targets:
  • Cell wall assembly and maintenance
  • Membrane integrity
  • Protein synthesis
  • DNA and RNA information transfer
  • The folate pathway to deoxythymidylate
• An in-depth examination of the universe of bacterial resistance, including the concept of the resistome and the three major mechanisms of resistance:
  • Antibiotic destruction
  • Antibiotic active efflux
  • Alteration of antibiotic targets
• Insights into the biosynthetic machinery for major classes of natural product antibiotics.

Authors:
Christopher Walsh (Author)
Edition:
2nd
Publication Date:
February 1, 2016
From the book: