Biochemical Logic of Antibiotic Inactivation and Modification

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics manifests itself in both general and specifi c protection mechanisms. Consequently, the characteristics of resistance can be paralleled to those of the mammalian immune response. Antibiotic resistance can be differentiated into: (1) nonspecifi c mechanisms that confer general innate immunity to a class of antibiotics (e.g., broad spectrum effl ux mechanisms, target modifi cation), and (2) highly precise responses that include selective enzymebased mechanisms that mirror the acquired immune response with respect to target specifi city and potency. Bacteria deploy both types of mechanisms in response to the presence of cytotoxic antibiotics.