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Penicillin

In Our Time

CHAPTER

The Structure of Penicillin and Bacteria

It took many years, decades to really understand how penicillins and the similar drugs that came on afterwards, the beta-actam class worked. And they knew from its structure that it was similar to a natural product within the bacterial cell. So in the presence of penicillin, the cell wall fell apart and then the cell contents leaked out and the bacterium lies. At very low concentrations of drug, one shape happened and one type of enzyme was inhibited - higher concentrations which became sidal or kill bacteria.

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