Aminoglycosides

Intro

The aminoglycoside antibiotics are a class of amino containing oligosaccharides, and are notable for their broad-spectrum bacteriocidal activity - including their ability to kill difficult to treat infections such as those caused by P. aeruginosa. Alongside this, they are frequently used as selective markers when genetically engineering strains of Actinobacteria

Mechanism of Action

Aminoglycosides exert their activity by interfering with translation, thus interfering with susceptible organisms' ability to correctly synthesise vital proteins. This interference is carried out by binding to the 30S ribosomal subunit, specifically at the aminoacyl-tRNA accepting site.

Mechanisms of Resistance

There are three primary mechanisms of aminoglycoside resistance and tolerance:

• Export of the molecules, maintaining a low intracellular concentration
• Chemical modification of the molecules through the addition of nucleotides, acyl chains, or phosphate groups
• Methylation of nucleotides in the target rRNA sequence, thus preventing the aminoglycosides from binding to their target molecules