GC: n
S: WHO – http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/antibiotic-resistance/en/ (last access: 24 November 2016); WebMD – https://goo.gl/Te2Q2j (last access: 21 November 2016); MN – https://goo.gl/ikWg4w (last access: 21 November 2016).
N: 1. 1894, “destructive to micro-organisms,” from French antibiotique (c. 1889), from anti- “against” + biotique “of (microbial) life,” from Late Latin bioticus “of life”. As a noun, first recorded 1941 in works of U.S. microbiologist Selman Waksman (1888-1973), discoverer of streptomycin. Earlier the adjective was used in a sense “not from living organisms” in debates over the origins of certain fossils.
2. According to the Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, an antibiotic can be:
a) destructive of life.
b) a chemical substance produced by a microorganism that has the capacity, in dilute solutions, to kill other microorganisms or inhibit their growth. Antibiotics that are sufficiently nontoxic to the host are used as chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of infectious diseases. See also antimicrobial agent.
antineoplastic a’s (antitumor a’s) a class of antineoplastic agents that apparently affect the function or the synthesis, or both, of nucleic acids and thus are cell cycle nonspecific. See also antineoplastic therapy.
broad-spectrum antibiotic one that is effective against a wide range of bacteria, both gram-positive and gram-negative.
β-lactam antibiotic any of a group of antibiotics, including the cephalosporins and the penicillins, whose chemical structure contains a β-lactam ring.
3. Antibiotics are a group of medicines that are used to treat infections caused by germs (bacteria and certain parasites). They do not work against infections that are caused by viruses – for example, the common cold or flu. Antibiotics are normally only prescribed for more serious bacterial infections – for example, pneumonia. When prescribed, it is important to take the entire course of antibiotics which helps to prevent resistance developing to that antibiotic. Most side-effects of antibiotics are not serious – for example, diarrhoea, or mild stomach upset such as feeling sick (nausea). Although some people develop a serious allergy to some antibiotics, this is rare.
4. The recent development of molecular cloning systems in Streptomyces has made possible the isolation of biosynthetic genes for some of the many antibiotics produced by members of this important genus of bacteria. Such clones can now be used to test the idea that novel antibiotics could arise through the transfer of biosynthetic genes between streptomycetes producing different antibiotics.
5. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the movie Resistance (2015) by Michael Graziano.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=antibiotic (last access: 21 November 2016). 2. MEDICALDICT – https://goo.gl/pDXO1z (last access: 21 November 2016). 3. Patient – https://goo.gl/H840Y3 (last access: 21 November 2016). 4. TERMIUM PLUS – http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=antibiotic&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 24 November 2016). 5. IMDb – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3393198/ (last access: 24 November 2016).
SYN:
S:
CR:: amikacin, bacterium, drug product, infusion, microorganism.
