Kanamycin

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Kanamycin
Systematic (IUPAC) name
2-(aminomethyl)- 6-[4,6-diamino-3- [4-amino-3,5-dihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl) tetrahydropyran- 2-yl]oxy-2-hydroxy-cyclohexoxy]- tetrahydropyran-3,4,5-triol
Identifiers
CAS number	8063-07-8
ATC code	A07 AA08 J01 GB04 S01 AA24
PubChem	6032
DrugBank	APRD00026
Chemical data
Formula	C₁₈H₃₆N₄O₁₁
Mol. weight	484.499
Pharmacokinetic data
Bioavailability	very low after oral delivery
Metabolism	?
Half life	2 hours 30 minutes
Excretion	?
Therapeutic considerations
Pregnancy cat.	?
Legal status	?
Routes	Oral, intravenous, intramuscular

Kanamycin (marketed under the brand name Kantrex®) is an aminoglycoside antibiotic, available in both oral and intravenous forms, and used to treat a wide variety of infections.

[edit] Pharmacology

Kanamycin works by affecting 30S ribosomal subunit and causing a frame-shift. This means that instead of a codon CAT (for example in sequence CATG), a codon ATG is read by aminoacyil tRNA (aa-tRNA). Aminoacyil tRNA is consequently carrying a different amino acid, because the anticodon on the aa-tRNA is different. The protein needed cannot be synthesised - a completely different protein has been synthesised or a protein similar to the one needed, but not folded correctly; it depends of the site and severness of the frame-shift. A bacterium is destroyed because it cannot produce any of its proteins correctly.

Because of over usage of antibiotics in every possible (even viral) disease as a precaution many bacteria have developed a resistance against kanamycin, and, consequently, it is not being used much anymore.