Antibiotic uptake and the cytoplasmic membrane

Abstract

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are accumulated through a unique bacterial transport process. Knowledge of the process and how it can alter susceptibility to aminoglycoside antibiotics may be used to investigate mechanisms that might increase the activity of these compounds. It is possible that aminoglycoside activity could be increased by presenting more drug to the cytoplasmic membrane through alteration of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria by increasing transporter concentration or driving force in the form of the electrical potential, by decreasing the rate of enzymatic modification so that active drug can be transported, or by changing aminoglycosides to utilize alternative forms of transport and finally to increase ribosomal affinity for these drugs.