Use of Antibiotics

10 Key excerpts on "Use of Antibiotics"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  Current Perspectives on Anti-Infective Agents

  • K. Tamreihao, Saikat Mukherjee, Debananda S. Ningthoujam, K. Tamreihao, Saikat Mukherjee, Debananda S. Ningthoujam(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Bentham Science Publishers

    (Publisher)

  Human beings and the microbial world have co-existed and maintained a symbiotic balance; providing a protective and stabilizing effect on the body as resident microbes. Pathogenic bacteria invade and grow in human tissues causing diseases and damaging the body. They represent a major problem threatening the health of humans, sometimes leading to death. This stimulated the scientists to find new solutions to many diseases by clarifying the interactions of antibacterial compounds with the biological medium. The Use of Antibiotics protects the body from pathogenic microorganisms, however, there is also negative side effect. Proper characterization and adequate understanding of the mode of action of antibiotics are therefore an indispensable necessity. Examining the mechanism of action of the various antibiotics illustrates how they are effective against pathogenic microorganisms with minimal selectively. The mechanism of action of antibiotics occurs in the cell wall or within the cell of pathogens where it may block the synthesis or break down the cell wall, block catabolic energy-supplying mechanisms or anabolic protein synthesizing processes. Hence, in this book chapter will deals on the classification of antibiotics, their mode of action, application and, how antibiotics are used as anti-infective agents are discussed.

  Keywords: Actinomycete, Antibiotics, Antibacterial drug, Anti-infective agents, Bacteriostatic, Inflammation, Nucleic acid synthesis, Protein synthesis, Ribosomes.

  * Corresponding author Laishram Jaya Devi: Advanced Level State Biotech Hub (AdL- SBT Hub), Department of Biochemistry, Manipur University Canchipur 795003, India; Tel: +91 986 2639 460; E-mail: [email protected]

  INTRODUCTION

  The term antibiotic was derived from the word “antibiosis” which literally means “against life”. An antibiotic or an antibacterial compound, is a drug which issued to treat and prevent bacterial infections [1 , 2 ]. They may either inhibit the growth or kill the bacteria [3 ]. Several antibiotics are also effective against fungi and protozoans. However, some are toxic to humans and animals even when prescribed in therapeutic range. They are not effective against viruses such as viruses that cause common cold or influenza and may be harmful when taken inappropriately.

  Sometimes the antibiotic is broadly referred to any substance which is used against microbes. However, in medical term, they are refer to those produced naturally whereas, non-antibiotic antibacterial drugs (such as sulfonamides and antiseptics) are fully synthetic. In the past, antibiotics were considered as organic compounds produced by single microorganism, which are detrimental to other microorganisms. As a result of this notion, antibiotic was considered as a secondary metabolite produced by a microorganism, or of biological origin which at low concentrations can suppress the growth of other microorganisms. However, this definition has been modified in modern times, to include antimicrobial metabolites that are also produced partly or wholly through synthetic means. Those antibiotics which are able to completely kill other bacteria are known as bactericidal, while those inhibit the growth are termed bacteriostatic.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Controversies in Science and Technology

  From Maize to Menopause

  • Daniel Lee Kleinman, Abby J. Kinchy, Jo Handelsman, Daniel Lee Kleinman, Abby J. Kinchy, Jo Handelsman(Authors)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • University of Wisconsin Press

    (Publisher)

  But the intensive Use of Antibiotics comes with a cost. Antibiotics kill bac- teria or stop them from growing by disrupting the cells’ machinery. At the same time, antibiotic use selects for bacterial cells containing genes that 23 allow the cells to disable or evade the drugs, most of which are also used to treat human infections. The resistance genes can be transferred through foodborne bacteria or other means to the human intestine and have been linked to drug-resistant infections in people and even to several deaths (World Health Organization 2000). Although the misuse of anti- biotics in human medicine is also a big contributor to the development of resistance—an estimated half of antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary (Levy 1998)—agriculture’s contribution cannot be dismissed. Public health–monitoring programs are turning up increased fre- quencies and spread of resistant bacteria that cause foodborne illness, particularly Salmonella, Campylobacter, and toxic strains of the normally benign Escherichia coli (U.S. General Accounting Office 1999). Agricul- tural use of one class of antibiotic has also been linked to development of resistance to the human version of the drug among enterococci, a group of potentially deadly hospital-acquired pathogens (Kaufman 2000). In response to these trends, researchers are looking for ways to reduce the Use of Antibiotics in agriculture, particularly their use as growth pro- moters. Remedies range from renewed attention to sanitary animal hus- bandry and hygiene to experimental immunological methods and truly novel forms of antimicrobials. But progress in moving alternatives to the farm has been slow and, as a recent federal plan to combat antibiotic re- sistance notes, requires an intensified research and regulatory push (Task Force 2001).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Antimicrobial Resistance

  Collaborative Measures of Control

  • Sunil Dasharath Saroj(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  4 Antimicrobials in Growth and Development Ujjayni Saha Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune, 412115, India Ranjika Bhattacharya Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University): Pune, 412115, India Sunil D. Saroj Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune, 412115, India CONTENTS 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Antimicrobial resistance 4.2.1 Drivers of AMR 4.2.1.1 AMR mechanisms can fall into four different groups 4.2.1.2 What is making AMR grow so extensively? 4.2.2 Transmission of AMR from animals to humans or vice versa by different routes 4.3 Application of antimicrobials 4.3.1 Disease prevention 4.3.2 Disease treatment 4.3.3 Growth promotion 4.4 Antibiotics common in human and animal health 4.5 Future perspectives 4.1 Introduction Antimicrobials are ft diverse group of compounds frequently used to treat infections; caused by pathogenic microorganisms. In 1928, Alexander Fleming made the breakthrough discovery of penicillin, the first known antibiotic, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine in 1945. Over the years* this was followed by the unearthing of many other findings that have immensely helped to combat a broad range of infectious diseases [ 1 ], Antimicrobials include a range of antibiotics, antiparasitic, antifungals, and antiviral drugs, which help eradicate many pathogens. However, due to indiscriminate and irrational use of these antimicrobials, these pathogens change over time and no longer respond to these drugs, failing to clear infections, giving rise to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in which microorganisms mutate or undergo certain adaptations to render treatments futile. This increases the risk of disease spread and death in humans, animals, and plants

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Antimicrobials in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Research

  • Arti Gupta, RAM PRASAD, Arti Gupta, RAM PRASAD(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  However, during the early 1900s, most of the global population suffered from common ailments, namely cold and flu, owing to the paucity of antimicrobial agents. The substances that inhibit the growth and development of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi are called antimicrobials (Burnett-Boothroyd and McCarthy 2011). The term antibiotic, on the other hand, originates from antibiosis which means ‘against life’. Earlier, the use of this term was confined to the natural chemical ingredients produced by microbes that were either lethal (bactericidal) or inhibitory (bacteriostatic) to other related microorganisms (such as algae, bacteria and fungi) but now they also include chemically-synthesized compounds (Aminov and Mackie, 2007 ; Amnirov, 2009). Till now, ~250 types of antibiotics have been noted for use in humans and animals where they have been shown to affect the biosynthesis of components of cell wall, protein synthesis machinery, folic acid synthesis, metabolism and genetic element of the organisms (Figure 4.1 ; Kummerer, 2003 ; Singh et al., 2021). The prime source for antimicrobials/antibiotics includes algae, bacteria, fungi and plants (Hayashi et al., 2014; Inamuddin et al. 2021). With advances in therapeutics, the multitude of antibiotics usage and lack of surveillance gathered crucial setbacks, of which acquired resistance is the prominent one. Bacterial resistance can be categorized into multidrug-resistant (MDR), pan drug-resistant (PDR) and extreme drug-resistant (XDR) (Magiorakos et al., 2012). MDR bacteria have become an alarming concern owing to their steadily growing resistance to last drug resorts such as vancomycin and colistin

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Nanobioanalytical Approaches to Medical Diagnostics

  • Pawan Kumar Maurya, Pranjal Chandra(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Woodhead Publishing

    (Publisher)

  This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation Project No. 22-29-00587.

  Conflict of interest

  There is no conflict of interest in this chapter.

  5.1: Introduction

  Antibiotics are some of the most common groups of drugs on the pharmaceutical market. They are used widely in the food industry for the preservation, processing, and transportation of food products, as well as in human and veterinary medicine (Ierapetritou et al., 2016 ). They are also added at subtherapeutic concentrations to animal feed to enhance animal growth (World Health Organization, 2011 ). The intense Use of Antibiotics has given rise to antibiotic resistance—an inevitable biological phenomenon, which is associated with the high adaptive abilities of microorganisms and is almost impossible to prevent. The antibacterial agents accumulating in the environment include not only antibiotics but also an assortment of biologically active compounds (drugs, drug metabolites, and endocrine disruptors). Because antibiotics may enter the water cycle, analysis of drinking water for their presence is of particular importance. It is, therefore, vital to monitor and determine the content of antibiotics in dosage forms in liquids, food products, pharmaceutical wastewater, and other media. Antibiotics are detected by microbiological, spectrophotometric, fluorimetric, chemiluminescent, and chromatographic methods. These include high-performance liquid chromatography, chromatography-mass spectrometry, stripping voltammetry, electroanalytical determination with modified electrodes (EUCAST Definitive Document, 1998 ), and biosensor methods (Mungroo and Neethirajan, 2014 ; Munteanu et al., 2018

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Food Microbiology

  In Human Health and Disease

  • Nancy Khardori(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  The physiology underlying these effects remains unclear, but a number of theories have been suggested. Most experts agree that antibiotics most likely provide some form of protection from the unhygienic environments present on industrial animal farms. Some postulate that antibiotics may decrease the burden of microorganisms in animal feed, minimizing the nutrient loss from the feed. Alternatively, by eliminating pathogenic bacteria, they might reduce the catabolic effects of chronic inflammatory responses, which cause weight loss and muscle wasting (Chattopadhyay 2014). But while the benefits of antimicrobial use for growth promotion may be appealing, the risks to human health, now and in the future, are far greater. Of the millions of pounds of antibiotics used annually to augment growth in farm animals, many are drugs that serve a critical role in human medicine (Mellon et al. 2001). In 2011, medically important antimicrobials accounted for 61% of all antimicrobials used in food-producing animals. Of these tetracyclines (68%) and penicillins (11%) were most common, followed by macrolides (7%) and sulfonamides (FDA 2014). Antimicrobials not currently used in humans way also select genes that lead to cross-resistance to those that are used to human infections. Food Microbiology: In Human Health and Disease Antibiotics in Animal Feed 141 The risk of this practice is two-fold. First, while the development of antimicrobial resistance among bacterial populations is a natural phenomenon, the rate at which resistance is manifested is directly related to the amount of selective pressure applied to the microbial population. Following this premise, the administration of antimicrobial agents to an entire flock or herd applies a significantly higher stress to the bacterial population than the use of these drugs to treat individuals or groups of animals.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Drug Utilization Research

  Methods and Applications

  • Monique Elseviers, Björn Wettermark, Anna Birna Almarsdóttir, Morten Andersen, Ria Benko, Marion Bennie, Irene Eriksson, Brian Godman, Janet Krska, Elisabetta Poluzzi, Kstja Taxis, Vera Vlahovic-Palcevski, Robert Vander Stichele, Katja Taxis(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)
• As children and the elderly are the most exposed age groups, drug utilization studies and quality improvement programmes should particularly focus on these populations. In the hospital sector, special attention should be paid to high-consumption departments such as the intensive care unit and haemato-oncology.
• Antibiotic use is the result of a complex process influenced by many factors among different stakeholders. Diverse, multifaceted intervention programmes should involve multiple stakeholders in improving antibiotic use.

Introduction

Antibacterial agents (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) group J01) are unique in that their use has consequences for the whole community, through the development of antibiotic resistance. Because of their frequent use, high cost and public health consequences, the consumption of antibacterial agents has been extensively studied. The terms antibacterial/antibiotic and use/consumption are synonyms and used alternately through the chapter.

The ‘microbial threat' was first recognized as a widespread problem in the 1990s [1] and is now highlighted as a major global risk by several agencies, including the Worl Health Organization (WHO) and World Economic Forum (WEF) [2–4]. The WHO has recently produced a global action plan to combat bacterial resistance [5].

Outside the Nordic countries, which have published joint drug statistics since 1979 [6,7], the only international antibacterial surveillance system currently in place is the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption Network (ESAC-Net; formerly (2001–11) the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC)), run by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Many countries have established national surveillance systems, including Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia [8–13]. The Strategies to Address Antimicrobial Resistance (STAAR) Act was reintroduced in the United States in 2014 with the aim of monitoring antibiotic consumption and resistance data in a similar manner to ESAC-Net [14].

Human, animal and ecosystem health are inextricably linked. The One Health (formerly ‘One Medicine') concept is dedicated to improving the lives of humans and animals through the integration of human and veterinary medicine and environmental science [15]. In this chapter, we address antibacterial use in humans; however, when examining the global threat of bacterial resistance, it is important to take all Use of Antibiotics into account. In addition to human consumption, antibiotics are used extensively in agriculture and in animal husbandry, where they provide disease prevention and growth promotion (note: in some countries, antibiotics are banned as growth promoters). As resistant bacteria can be transmitted from animals to humans, ensuring prudent use of antibacterials in animals is important [8]. The European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC) project launched in 2009 to monitor veterinary usage of antibacterials. It published its first report in 2011 [16]. For the first time veterinary and human antibiotic use in Europe have been included in one common report in 2014.