Production of antibiotics
Production of antibiotics is a naturally occurring event, that thanks to advances in science can now be replicated and improved upon in laboratory settings.
Due to the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming, and the efforts of Florey and Chain in 1938, large-scale, pharmaceutical production of antibiotics has been made possible.
The remainder must be tested for their selective toxicities and therapeutic activities, and the best candidates can be examined and possibly modified.
This new methodology involves using Lactobacillus species and shows a clear zone of inhibition as well as allowing for a determination of minimum inhibitory concentration.
As antibiotics are secondary metabolites, the population size must be controlled very carefully to ensure that maximum yield is obtained before the cells die.
[4] These methoxy groups allow methicillin to be used against penicillinase producing bacteria that would otherwise be resistant to penicillin.
[5] Like other antibiotics before it the discovery of nalidixic acid has been chalked up to an accident, discovered when George Lesher was attempting to synthesize chloroquine.
After the discovery there was the issue of taking the raw naturally produced penicillin and developing a method so that wide-scale production of a clinically significant antibiotic could occur.
Over the course of many years a team led by Florey and Chain and based in Oxford was able to successfully purify, concentrate, and produce the antibiotic.
However new developments in genomic sequencing and technology have led to improvements and discovery in the field of antibiotic production.
Post-production modifications include making antibiotics aerosolized so as to bypass doing unnecessary damage to bacteria located in other parts of the body and instead going directly to the lungs.
Broad spectrum antibiotics can have detrimental side effects when their action is also taken against necessary non-pathogenic bacteria residing in the human microbiome.
In some cases it is no longer enough for devices to be sterile when they are implanted into an individual, now they must be proactive in fighting off bacterial infection.
First described by Paley and Herzenberg [16] antibiotic cement nails have dual purpose, both of stabilization of the bone being treated, and prevention against post-procedure infection.
Antibiotic cement nails are inserted during surgery, and are produced around the time of procedure using materials available in the operating room setting.
Chest tubes have the advantage of being cheap and ubiquitous and have been shown to have uniformity in the production of antibiotic cement nails.
The antibiotics fill the voids within the cement matrix, and upon drying and setting can be inserted into the bone.
[17] The World Health Organization has recognized the danger of antibiotic resistance bacteria and has created a list of "priority pathogens" that are of the utmost concern.
In the United States, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) aims to support the work of the industry to produce new antibiotics.
