2011/03/22 by Agnė Giedraitienė, Astra Vitkauskienė, Rima Naginienė +1 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Medicine · #Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria #Antibiotic resistance #Antibiotics #Antibiotics Pharmacokinetics and Efficacy #Antimicrobial #Bacteria #Bacterial cell structure #Bacterial genetics #Biochemistry #Biology #Chloramphenicol #Efflux #Escherichia coli #Gene #Genetics #Membrane permeability #Microbiology #Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts #Plasmid #Transduction (biophysics) #Transformation (genetics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/medicina47030019
openalex publication_date 2011/03/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Bacterial resistance to antimicrobial drugs is an increasing health and economic problem. Bacteria may be innate resistant or acquire resistance to one or few classes of antimicrobial agents. Acquired resistance arises from: (i) mutations in cell genes (chromosomal mutation) leading to cross-resistance, (ii) gene transfer from one microorganism to other by plasmids (conjugation or transformation), transposons (conjugation), integrons and bacteriophages (transduction). After a bacterium gains resistance genes to protect itself from various antimicrobial agents, bacteria can use several biochemical types of resistance mechanisms: antibiotic inactivation (interference with cell wall synthesis, e.g., β-lactams and glycopeptide), target modification (inhibition of protein synthesis, e.g., macrolides and tetracyclines; interference with nucleic acid synthesis, e.g., fluoroquinolones and rifampin), altered permeability (changes in outer membrane, e.g., aminoglycosides; new membrane transporters, e.g., chloramphenicol), and "bypass" metabolic pathway (inhibition of metabolic pathway, e.g., trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole).