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Penicillin

About: Penicillin is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 17916 publications have been published within this topic receiving 368480 citations. The topic is also known as: penicillin antibiotic & PCN.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Since their discovery, antimicrobial drugs have proved remarkably effective for the control of bacterial infections, however, it was soon evident that bacterial pathogens were unlikely to surrender unconditionally, because some pathogens rapidly became resistant to many of the first effective drugs.
Abstract: Since their discovery, antimicrobial drugs have proved remarkably effective for the control of bacterial infections. However, it was soon evident that bacterial pathogens were unlikely to surrender unconditionally, because some pathogens rapidly became resistant to many of the first effective drugs. For example, the development of resistance to penicillin in Staphylococcus aureus by the production of a β-lactamase quickly decreased the usefulness of penicillin for serious staphylococcal infections, especially among hospitalized patients, in whom resistant strains are frequently found before they spread to the community.1 Initially, the problem of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial drugs was solved by the discovery of . . .

1,099 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that children should be screened in the neonatal period for Sickle cell hemoglobinopathy and that those with sickle cell anemia should receive prophylactic therapy with oral penicillin by four months of age to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with pneumococcal septicemia.
Abstract: Children with sickle cell anemia have an increased susceptibility to bacterial infections, especially to those caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. We therefore conducted a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to test whether the regular, daily administration of oral penicillin would reduce the incidence of documented septicemia due to S.pneumoniae in children with sickle cell anemia who were under the age of three years at the time of entry. The children were randomly assigned to receive either 125 mg of penicillin V potassium (105 children) or placebo (110 children) twice daily. The trial was terminated 8 months early, after an average of 15 months of follow-up, when an 84 percent reduction in the incidence of infection was observed in the group treated with penicillin, as compared with the group given placebo (13 of 110 patients vs. 2 of 105; P = 0.0025), with no deaths from pneumococcal septicemia occurring in the penicillin group but three deaths from the infection occurring in the placebo group. On the basis of these results, we conclude that children should be screened in the neonatal period for sickle cell hemoglobinopathy and that those with sickle cell anemia should receive prophylactic therapy with oral penicillin by four months of age to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with pneumococcal septicemia.

1,021 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Evidence is presented that penicillin bulge formation is due to the inhibition of proteins 2 and 3 in the absence of inhibition of protein 1.
Abstract: The varied effects of beta-lactam antibiotics on cell division, cell elongation, and cell shape in E. coli are shown to be due to the presence of three essential penicillin binding proteins with distinct roles in these three processes. (A) Cell shape: beta-Lactams that specifically result in the production of ovoid cells bind to penicillin binding protein 2 (molecular weight 66,000). A mutant has been isolated that fails to bind beta-lactams to protein 2, and that grows as round cells. (B) Cell division: beta-Lactams that specifically inhibit cell division bind preferentially to penicillin binding protein 3 (molecular weight 60,000). A temperature-sensitive cell division mutant has been shown to have a thermolabile protein 3. (C) Cell elongation: One beta-lactam that preferentially inhibits cell elongation and causes cell lysis binds preferentially to binding protein 1 (molecular weight 91,000). Evidence is presented that penicillin bulge formation is due to the inhibition of proteins 2 and 3 in the absence of inhibition of protein 1.

973 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Because a limited number of serotypes account for most infections with drug-resistant strains, the new conjugate vaccines offer protection against most drug- resistant strains of S. pneumoniae.
Abstract: Background The emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria has complicated treatment decisions and may lead to treatment failures. Methods We examined data on invasive pneumococcal disease in patients identified from 1995 to 1998 in the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pneumococci that had a high level of resistance or had intermediate resistance according to the definitions of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards were defined as “resistant” for this analysis. Results During 1998, 4013 cases of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae disease were reported (23 cases per 100,000 population); isolates were available for 3475 (87 percent). Overall, 24 percent of isolates from 1998 were resistant to penicillin. The proportion of isolates that were resistant to penicillin was highest in Georgia (33 percent) and Tennessee (35 percent), in children under five years of age (32 percent, vs. 21 percent for persons five or more years of ag...

909 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023459
2022907
2021249
2020269
2019221
2018192