How it works: Major mechanism of antibacterial agents

Antibacterial agent is a natural or synthetic compound which inhibits the growth of bacteria in microorganisms. These agents determine their antibacterial range according to the type of targeted bacteria and are commonly divided into gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria. If agents act on both gram-positive and -negative bacteria, it can be classified as a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent. Moreover, if only a few of them work on it, they can be classified as a medium-spectrum antibacterial agent. In general, antibacterial agents are categorized based on structural features and mode of action. These include five main topics: inhibition of cell wall synthesis, disturbance of nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, folic acid and cell membrane dysfunction by changing cell membrane permeability. This chapter focused on characteristicmechanism of five main categories and the corresponding representative type of antibacterial agents.