Β-Lactam antibiotic
class of broad-spectrum antibiotics, consisting of all antibiotic agents that contain a β-lactam ring in their molecular structures
β-Lactam antibiotics (beta-lactam antibiotics) are antibiotics that contain a β-lactam ring in their chemical
structure. This includes penicillin derivatives (penams), cephalosporins and cephamycins (cephems), monobactams, carbapenems and carbacephems. Most β-lactam antibiotics work by inhibiting cell wall biosynthesis in the bacterial organism and are the most widely used group of antibiotics. Until 2003, when measured by sales, more than half of all commercially available antibiotics in use were β-lactam compounds. The first β-lactam antibiotic discovered, penicillin, was isolated from a strain of Penicillium rubens (named as Penicillium notatum at the time).
Bacteria often develop resistance to β-lactam antibiotics by synthesizing a β-lactamase, an enzyme that attacks the β-lactam ring. To overcome this resistance, β-lactam antibiotics can be given with β-lactamase inhibitors such as clavulanic acid.
Medical use
β-Lactam antibiotics are indicated for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible organisms. At first, β-lactam antibiotics were mainly active only against gram-positive bacteria, yet the recent development of broad-spectrum β-lactam antibiotics active against various gram-negative organisms has increased their usefulness.
In uninflamed (normal) brain meninges, the penetration of beta-lactam antibiotics is low, at 0.15 of AUCCSF/AUCS ratio (the ratio of area under curve of cerebrosopinal fluid against area under curve of serum).
“Β-Lactam antibiotic” enters the record as class of broad-spectrum antibiotics, consisting of all antibiotic agents that contain a β-lactam ring in their molecular structures. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Β-Lactam, antibiotic and class can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q306264. The Library of Congress control number is sh86002798. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “Β-Lactam antibiotic” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.