Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A lactam composed of a four-membered ring, formed by intramolecular condensation of an amino acid in which the amino group is located at the beta position, or any compound containing this group.
- noun Any of a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as certain penicillins and cephalosporins, that contain a lactam ring.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun organic chemistry A
lactam having a four-memberedring structure; a structural element of manyantibiotics such aspenicillin .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Collectively, they are called beta-lactam antibiotics and are the most commonly prescribed drugs in medicine.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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Collectively, they are called beta-lactam antibiotics and are the most commonly prescribed drugs in medicine.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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Collectively, they are called beta-lactam antibiotics and are the most commonly prescribed drugs in medicine.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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What all of these have in common is a four-cornered arrangement of atoms at the center of the drug molecule, called the beta-lactam ring.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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What all of these have in common is a four-cornered arrangement of atoms at the center of the drug molecule, called the beta-lactam ring.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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What all of these have in common is a four-cornered arrangement of atoms at the center of the drug molecule, called the beta-lactam ring.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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Ampicillin and amoxicillin, semi-synthetic penicillins that were developed more recently, also incorporate the beta-lactam ring.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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She was started on a beta-lactam antibiotic that could target multiple families of bacteria, another common measure because preemies are so vulnerable to infection.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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And all four had been given antibiotics—but because their doctors did not imagine that MRSA was out in the community, the children got beta-lactam antibiotics that would have had no effect on any MRSA strain.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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He diagnosed mastitis and possibly shingles, and he prescribed painkillers, an antiviral, and cephalexin, a beta-lactam cephalosporin.
SUPERBUG MARYN MCKENNA 2010
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