Question

Are antibiotics enzyme inhibitors?

Answer 1

Antibiotics:

1. Antibiotics refer to chemical compounds that kill or retard the growth of bacteria.
2. They can be natural (penicillin) or synthetic (sulfonamides).
3. Most antibiotics are obtained from microbes such as bacteria or molds.
4. Some antibiotics act as enzyme inhibitors. Antibiotics such as penicillin kill bacteria by inhibiting the enzyme transpeptidase which is required for cell wall synthesis.
5. All antibiotics are not enzyme inhibitors.
6. For example, tetracyclines inhibit bacterial growth by blocking translation. It binds to the 30S ribosomal subunit and prevents the binding of amino-acyl tRNA to the A site of the ribosome; thereby blocking translation.