Development
Antimicrobial resistance and its development is a complex subject. Originally, it was a natural defence mechanism of bacteria to fight against naturally occurring antibiotics, which are produced by a number of fungi and bacteria in the wild, to aid their survival. Now, we are artificially exposing them to antibiotics as we treat animals, to fight disease.
Antibiotics are produced commercially by fermenting these fungi and bacteria and extracting the antibiotic (e.g. penicillins, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides) or frequently adding side chains and producing semi-synthetic antibiotics (e.g. amoxycillin, methicillin, cephalosporins) with different or improved spectra of activity, pharmacokinetics or efficacy. There are also fully synthesised antimicrobial compounds, like the sulphonamides, trimethoprim and the fluoroquinolones. Each antimicrobial family and its subgroups has its own mode of action and thereby each bacterial or mycoplasmal species develops its own way of countering the antimicrobial, as a defence or resistance mechanism, so that it can survive and continue to live in the environment it inhabits, e.g. the gut, the respiratory tract etc
Antibiotics are produced commercially by fermenting these fungi and bacteria and extracting the antibiotic (e.g. penicillins, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides) or frequently adding side chains and producing semi-synthetic antibiotics (e.g. amoxycillin, methicillin, cephalosporins) with different or improved spectra of activity, pharmacokinetics or efficacy. There are also fully synthesised antimicrobial compounds, like the sulphonamides, trimethoprim and the fluoroquinolones. Each antimicrobial family and its subgroups has its own mode of action and thereby each bacterial or mycoplasmal species develops its own way of countering the antimicrobial, as a defence or resistance mechanism, so that it can survive and continue to live in the environment it inhabits, e.g. the gut, the respiratory tract etc
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