Clarithromycin – A perfect check to weed out bacterial infections

Clarithromycin is one of the most preferred macrolide antibiotics to treat an extensive range of infections reported by bacteria. This antibiotic medication has gained a lot of momentum due to its extreme potent activity on the gram positive micro-organisms in particular. It is most widely used to cure acute maxillary sinusitis, acute bacterial exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, pharyngitis, pneumonia, tonsillitis and skin structure infections. Hence, it became an easy task to chuck out gram positive as well as gram negative microbes with the help of this marvelous antibiotic medication.
Clarithromycin has been just a small pill but it has multiple functions such as relieving the symptoms of stomach ulcers that are generally brought about by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, also plays a key factor in preventing as well as curing disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex or MAC observed in HIV patients and mitigating the congestion in Asthma patients along with treating bacterial complications. Infections of gram negative bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumonia and Streptococcus pyogenes are best treated with this medication. Clarithromycin do posses distinct activity against Haemophilus Influenzae and also a brilliant action against intracellular microbes such as Mycoplasma and Legionella species.
Getting into the structural details of Clarithromycinr
We all know that Clarithromycin is a 14 – constituent macrolide molecule. This medication contains two sugar molecules attached to a lactones ring and this is responsible to bestow acid stability, pharmacokinetic properties and enhanced anti-bacterial activity on it. A 14-hydroxy epimer is the main active component of this medication that is filled with potent antibacterial property and is being found to posses’ synergistic effect in conjugation with the parent molecule against varied delirious bacterial species.
The bioavailability of 50% makes this medication to get easily absorbed in the blood along with effectively concentrating in the tissues. It has a half life of 3 - 7 hours and hence makes it necessary to be administered two times on a daily basis to maintain its proper concentration in blood. It is generally metabolized in liver by cytochrome P450 microsomal enzymes and hence, it has greater chances of interaction with other medications.