Medical Treatment
One of the several unique characteristics of Gram-negative bacteria is the structure of the outer membrane. The outer leaflet of the membrane comprises a complex lipopolysaccharide whose lipid portion acts as an endotoxin. If endotoxin enters the circulatory system, it causes a toxic reaction, with the sufferer developing a high temperature, high respiration rate, and low blood pressure. This may lead to endotoxic shock, which may be fatal.
This outer membrane protects the bacteria from several antibiotics, dyes, and detergents that would normally damage the inner membrane or cell wall (peptidoglycan). The outer membrane provides these bacteria with resistance to lysozyme and penicillin. However, alternative medicinal treatments such as lysozyme with EDTA and the antibiotic ampicillin have been developed to combat the protective outer membrane of some pathogenic Gram-negative organisms. Other drugs can be used, significant ones being chloramphenicol, streptomycin, and nalidixic acid.
Read more about this topic: Gram-negative Bacteria
Famous quotes containing the words medical and/or treatment:
“There may perhaps be a new generation of doctors horrified by lacerations, infections, women who have douched with kitchen cleanser. What an irony it would be if fanatics continued to kill and yet it was the apathy and silence of the medical profession that most wounded the ability to provide what is, after all, a medical procedure.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“I feel that any form of so called psychotherapy is strongly contraindicated for addicts.... The question “Why did you start using narcotics in the first place?” should never be asked. It is quite as irrelevant to treatment as it would be to ask a malarial patient why he went to a malarial area.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)