We all know that the health-care system in the United States of America is broken and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. As podium pushers and politicians tell us that they will give us universal health care we all know that that is impossible. We also know that the Social Security system is running dry and we can barely afford that.

We know that there are all kinds of lobbyists from the health-care industry in Washington, DC trying to keep it going and keep the government paying for all these health services in our hospitals. The truth this is the Medicare system in the United States was originally ill-conceived and it is only gotten worse throughout the years. Today it represents a huge cost that we can no longer afford.

Indeed the health-care system is broken, but who is coming to the rescue and how come these politicians keep promising us universal health care – a scheme that would clearly bankrupt our nation? So who is going to bail out all the hospitals if the government stops footing the bill?

Maybe big Pharma and the pharmaceutical companies might buy up all the hospitals in order to make sure that those hospitals only sell their drugs? America is on drugs there is no doubt about that and the average Grandma now is probably taking 13 different medications all counter-acting each other, wow, now that is certainly quality of life.

It is incredible this crisis – maybe we should combine these two crisis – the health-care industry and big Pharma and put them together so we can manage them better as we cut off some of this excessive corporate welfare? Too hard hitting for you? So, what’s your solution then?

Technically, an antibiotic is a substance that is produced by one microorganism and it is capable of killing or inhibiting the growth of another microorganism which can a virus, bacteria, fungi, yeast, protozoan or any other pathogen.

The first antibiotic that was developed was Penicillin, a biological compound that is produced by fungi in the genus Penicillium. It was discovered by Alexander Fleming in the year 1928. After that, several other types of antibiotics produced by different species of bacteria and fungi were isolated. Some of these include cephalosporins; aminoglycosides such as streptomycin, gentamicin and kanamycin; ansamycins such as geldanamycin and carabecephems; glycopeptides like vancomycin; macrolides like erythromycin and azithromycin, penicillin, quinolone, polypeptide and sulfonamide.

All these antibiotics have different mode of action by which they act as therapeutic agents. Some of the modes of action by different antibiotics are mentioned below:

Cell Wall Synthesis Inhibitors:

Bacteria contain murein or peptidoglycan that is highly essential in maintaining the cell wall structure. Cell wall synthesis inhibitors such as beta-lactams, cephalosporins and glycopeptides block the ability of microorganisms to synthesize their cell wall by inhibiting the synthesis of peptidoglycan.

Interfering with Protein Synthesis:

These classes of antibiotics inhibit the protein synthesis machinery in the cell. Some examples include tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, aminoglycosides and macrolides.

Cell Membrane Inhibitors:

Antibiotics such as polymyxins disrupt the integrity and structure of cell membranes, thereby killing them. These set of antibiotics are mostly effective on gram negative bacteria because these are the bacteria that contain a definite cell membrane.

Effect on Nucleic Acids:

DNA and RNA are extremely essential nucleic acids present in every living cell. Antibiotics such as quinolones and rifamycins bind to the proteins that are required for the processing of DNA and RNA, thus blocking their synthesis and thereby affecting the growth of the cells.

Competitive Inhibitors:

Also referred to as anti-metabolites or growth factor analogs, these are antibiotics that competitively inhibit the important metabolic pathways occurring inside the bacterial cell. Important ones in this class are sulfonamides such as Gantrisin and Trimethoprim.