ABSTRACT
The toxicity of clinically important antibacterial antibiotics can often be explained either by hypersensitivity (allergic reactions) or by cytotoxic lesions in susceptible tissues after repeated treatment. Occasionally, however, untoward patient responses to antibiotics are encountered that can be explained neither by immunologie mechanisms nor by overt cytotoxicity damage. Rather, the chemical structures of some antibiotic molecules allow them to pose as native ligands and therefore to be recognized by specific binding domains on excitable membranes of eukaryotic cells. The resulting interaction between the antibiotic ligand and the receptive membrane binding site modulates or even prevents the normal membrane functions associated with these sites, thereby leading to dysfunction of homeostatic regulatory activities of the affected host cell.
