Mechanism of Action
Clavulanic acid has negligible intrinsic antimicrobial activity, despite sharing the β-lactam ring that is characteristic of β-lactam antibiotics. However, the similarity in chemical structure allows the molecule to interact with the enzyme β-lactamase secreted by certain bacteria to confer resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. Clavulanic acid is a suicide inhibitor, covalently bonding to a serine residue in the active site of the β-lactamase. This restructures the clavulanic acid molecule, creating a much more reactive species that is attacked by another aminoacid in the active site, permanently inactivating it, and thus inactivating the enzyme.
This inhibition restores the antimicrobial activity of β-lactam antibiotics against lactamase-secreting resistant bacteria. Despite this, some bacterial strains that are resistant even to such combinations have emerged.
Read more about this topic: Clavulanic Acid
Famous quotes containing the words mechanism of, mechanism and/or action:
“A mechanism of some kind stands between us and almost every act of our lives.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 3, ch. 2 (1962)
“A mechanism of some kind stands between us and almost every act of our lives.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 3, ch. 2 (1962)
“The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)