Methicillin is a semisynthetic penicillin antibiotic that can inhibit bacterial cell wall synthesis. It can be used to study methicillin-resistance in S. aureus.
Semi-synthetic antibiotic related to Penicillin. Antimicrobial.
Targets primarily the cell wall of Gram-positive organisms especially Staphylococcus aureus. Methicillin is used to study bacterium susceptibility, and to inhibit cell-wall synthesis. PBP's are enzymes which catalyze a pentaglycine crosslink between alanine and lysine residues providing additional strength to the cell wall. Without a pentaglycine crosslink, the integrity of the cell wall is severely compromised and ultimately leads to cell lysis and death. Methicillin Sodium Salt is inactivated by gastric acid so it is given to cells by other means in which gastric acid is not present in vitro.
ChEBI: Methicillin sodium is an organic sodium salt. It contains a methicillin(1-).
During 1960, methicillin sodium, 2,6-dimethoxyphenylpenicillinsodium (Staphcillin), the second penicillin produced asa result of the research that developed synthetic analogs, wasintroduced for medicinal use.
Methicillin sodium is particularly resistant to inactivationby the penicillinase found in staphylococci and somewhatmore resistant than penicillin G to penicillinase fromBacillus cereus.
similar to other β-lactam antibiotics, meticillin acts via inhibiting the synthesis of bacterial cell walls. meticillin can block the cross-linkage between the linear peptidoglycan polymer chains by binding to and competitively inhibiting the transpeptidase enzyme or penicillin-binding proteins [1].
in a previous animal study, the treatment with methicillin or gentamicin or both was started 3 days after infection to a experimental mouse model of foreign body infection. results found that the treatment showed a significant effect, demonstrated as reduction of bacteria on the foreign body, for all three regimens with a reduction of up to 2 log units, but there was no synergism. however, the actual efficacy of the treatment was poor, though the local methicillin concentrations was greater than the mic for at least 72 h [2].
[1] https://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/meticillin
[2] espersen f, frimodt-m ller n, corneliussen l, riber u, rosdahl vt, skinh j p. effect of treatment with methicillin and gentamicin in a new experimental mouse model of foreign body infection. antimicrob agents chemother. 1994 sep;38(9):2047-53.
