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Biochemical Mechanisms Of Resistance

Biochemical Mechanisms Of Resistance - Davies and Smith (1978) have classified the possible types of mechanisms of resistance to antimicrobial agents as follows:

(1) Alteration of the target site. 

(2) Blocking of antibiotic transport.

(3) Enzymatic detoxification or inactivation of antibiotic.

(4) Bypass mechanism in which a metabolic step inhibited by the antimicrobial agent is replaced.

(5) Saturating the drug by increasing the level of the inhibited enzyme.

(6) Production of inhibitor antagonistic metabolite.

(7) Decreasing the metabolic requirement of the cell for the pathway or reaction inhibited by the drug.

Mechanisms (1), (2), (5) and (7) can be achieved by point mutations in chromosome structure or by regulatory genes. For many antibiotitics, however, mechanisms (3), (4) or (6) are unlikely to arise by simple mutation of chromosomal genes. Mechanisms (5), (6) and (7) are not known to occur presently.

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