Structure of Antibiotics!

[Guest alistair87]

Guys im hoping someone would be able to help me here!

 

Im just finishing my biology coursework, an im wonerding if antibiotics are made from proteins? and if an invading microorganism were to invade, could it inhibit it as with a protein i.e. change the tertiary structure and change the shape of the antigen binding site etc?

 

Pleeeeease help!

[husmusen]

O.K

 

Anti-biotic is, to put it simply, a chemical that kills nasty bugs without

killing or maiming you in the process.

 

There are naturally occuring ones, like Penicillin.

There are also some artificially produced ones.

 

The artificially produced ones may or may not be proteins.

The molecules extracted from organic sources, like penicillin mould,

are almost certainly proteins.

 

And yes bacteria can produce other proteins that interfere with

anti-biotics, hence anti-biotic resistant bacteria.

One example of this is Beta-lactam(penicillin) some bacteria produce

a protein called Beta-lactamase which basically shreds the Beta-lactam

molecule to bits. (After which it doesn't work so good )

 

Generally IIRC AB resistant bacteria have several main ways,

1) They produce a protein that shreds or gums up the anti-biotic.

2) They produce a protein that stops the anti-biotic entering the bacteria.

3) They produce a protein that destroys the anti-biotic inside the bacteria.

4) Golden-S also I think has an active pump system that expells AB's from

the cell although I could be wrong on that.

 

Cheers.

[yangxu]

correct me if I'm wrong, based on what I've learned so far, antibiotics are either produced by fungi, bacteria themselves, or manufacturers... the artificially made ones includes anti-metabolites, analogues, etc.