Penicillin, a blue-green mold discovered by the Scottish scientist, Alexander Fleming dating back to 1928, saving uncountable amounts since and continue to save millions of victims today. Being able to semi-synthetically produce antibiotics, penicillin’s can be formed depending on the purpose it is required for. Also with the common build-up of antibiotic resistance, this allows the development of effective agents against evolving bacteria’s. Moreover, there are naturally occurring penicillin’s too for example Wycillin which is...
Penicillin, a blue-green mold discovered by the Scottish scientist, Alexander Fleming dating back to 1928, saving uncountable amounts since and continue to save millions of victims today. Being able to semi-synthetically produce antibiotics, penicillin’s can be formed depending on the purpose it is required for. Also with the common build-up of antibiotic resistance, this allows the development of effective agents against evolving bacteria’s. Moreover, there are naturally occurring penicillin’s too for example Wycillin which is used to cure infections transmitted by bacteria. Commonly helps cure the sexually transmitted disease Syphilis. The attention here is on Benzylpenicillin also known as Penicillin G (Pen G) which is one of the earliest and frequently used antibiotics. Being a beta-lactam antibiotic, Pen G mainly focuses on destroying gram-positive bacteria. Reason for this is because the gram-negative bacterium contains both lipopolysaccharide and protein layers surrounding the peptidoglycan layer of the cell wall which restrict the penicillin from attacking.
Attaching to exclusive PBP’s (penicillin-binding proteins) which are in the cell walls of the bacteria. Then Pen G obstructs the final two stages of bacterial cell wall synthesis which activates cell lysis. This is influenced by the enzyme cell wall autolytic such as autolysins.
