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Penicillin

In Our Time

CHAPTER

Penicillin and the Bacterial Cell Wall

Penicillin can work in several different ways. One of the important ways it works is it binds onto the cell wall or the bacterium. And one of the things that penicillin and other lactams do is to disrupt the constant shuffling and reforming of the cell wall, particularly the various pores which are in the cell wall. There's another approach which kills them really. Yes, it basically kills them unless they evolve resistance - we'll come to later.

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