General Principles of

Antimicrobial Agents
Classification of Antimicrobial agents According to
Type of organism
Spectrum of activity
Mechanism of action
Presented by-Nayan Das
Roll no.40
2nd professional MBBS
Tripura Medical College
Type of Organism:-
Antibacterial – Penicillin,
Aminoglycosides,Erythromycin etc
Antifungal – Griseofulvin ,Amphoterecin B,
Ketoconazol etc
Antiviral- Acyclovir, Amentadine , Zidovudine etc
Antiprotozoal – Chloroquine, Pyremethamine ,
Metronidazole etc
Antihelmintic – Mebendazole, Pyrental ,Niclosamide ,
Diethyl Carbamazine etc.
Spectrum of Activity:-

Broad spectrum
Narrow spectrum
Tetracycline
Penicillin G Chloramphenicol
Streptomycin
Erythromycin
Mechanism of Action:-
Inhibit cell wall synthesis:-
Penicillin
Bind to penicillin
binding proteins (PBP)
of microorganisms and
inhibit the cell wall
(peptidoglycan)
synthesis by inhibiting
the trannspeptidation
reaction (cross linkage)
of cell wall
Cause leakage from cell
membrane:-
Amphoterecin B
Binds to ergosterol that
is present in the
membrane of sensitive
fungi and forms pores
that increases the
membrane
permeability allowing
leakage of ions
Inhibit protein synthesis:-
Tetracycline
Itinhibit protein
synthesis by binding to
30s ribosomal subunit.
Subsequent to such
binding aminoacyl t-
RNA can’t bind to A site
of m-RNA ,as a result
the peptide chain fails
to grow
 Inhibit DNA gyrase:-
Ciprofloxacin
Itinhibits bacterial
DNA gyrase enzyme
in gram-ve organism
and Topoisomerse IV
in gram +ve
organism, that
separtes bacterial
DNA stands during
replication.
 Causes misreading of m-RNA:-
Streptomycin
 Transport
of streptomycin
through bacterial cell wall
and cytoplasmic membrane
 Binding to ribosome resulting
in inhibition of pritein
synthesis. It binds to 30s
subunit and causes distortion
of mRNA codon recognition
resulting in misreading of
the codon and production of
abnormal proteins.
Interference with DNA function Interference with
intermediatary metabolism
 Rifampicin  Sulfonamides