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lactam
(redirected from Beta-lactam antibiotics)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.03 sec.
lactam /lac·tam/ (lak´tam) a cyclic amide formed from aminocarboxylic acids by elimination of water; lactams are isomeric with lactims, which are enol forms of lactams.
β-lactam  see under antibiotic.

lac·tam (lktm)
n.
An amide formed from amino carboxylic acids containing a keto group in a ring configuration, as seen in purines, pyrimidines, and antibiotics. It is tautomeric to lactim.

lactam
[lak′təm]
a cyclic amide created by the elimination of a molecule of water from aminocarboxylic acid. Lactim is the isomeric form of lactam.

lactam
a cyclic amide formed from aminocarboxylic acids by elimination of water; lactams are isomeric with lactims, which are enol forms of lactams.

β-lactam antibiotics
includes the penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems and penems. See also β-lactam ring (below).
β-lactam ring
an integral part of the formula of β-lactam antibiotics. Disruption of the ring by β-lactamase produced by some bacteria, e.g. Escherichia coli, Bacillus anthracis, destroys the antimicrobial activity of the compound.


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10) In 1988, Henderson et al reported that pneumococci recovered from children in daycare were far more likely to be resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) and to beta-lactam antibiotics than were organisms recovered from patients at a tertiary care university hospital.
Only penicillin and its relatives, a drug family known as beta-lactam antibiotics, significantly raised the transporter concentrations in this neural tissue, the scientists report in the Jan.
The need for drugs that combat resistance is urgent, Tulkens says, especially in a world in which resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics (the penicillin family) is as high as 80% among some pneumonia-causing microbes.
 
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