History
Glycopeptides used to be the last effective line of defense for cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, however several newer classes of antibiotics, including linezolid of the oxazolidinone class, and daptomycin of the lipopeptide class have proven to have activity against MRSA. Vancomycin-resistant staphylococcus aureus has been seen in some countries.
While not approved for use in the U.S., teicoplanin was discovered in the early 1990s and is marketed in Europe. It is more lipophillic than vancomycin, as it has more fatty acid chains. It is considered to be 50 to 100 times more lipophillic than vancomycin. Teicoplanin has an increased half-life compared to vancomycin, as well as having better tissue penetration. It can be two to four times more active than vancomycin, but it does depend upon the organism. Teicoplanin is more acidic, forming water-soluble salts, so it can be given intramuscularly. Teicoplanin is much better at penetrating into leucocytes and phagocytes than vancomycin.
Read more about this topic: Glycopeptide Antibiotic
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“English history is all about men liking their fathers, and American history is all about men hating their fathers and trying to burn down everything they ever did.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)