Aminoglycoside is a
medicinal and
bacteriologic category of traditional Gram-negative
antibacterial therapeutic agents that inhibit protein synthesis and contain as a portion of the molecule an amino-modified
glycoside (
sugar); the term can also refer more generally to any organic molecule that contains aminosugar substructures. Aminoglycoside
antibiotics display bactericidal activity against gram-negative aerobes and some anaerobic
bacilli where resistance has not yet arisen, but generally not against Gram-positive and anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria. They include the first-in-class aminoglycoside
antibiotic streptomycin (images at right) derived from
Streptomyces griseus, the earliest modern agent used against
tuberculosis, and an example that
lacks the common 2-deoxystreptamine moiety (image right, below) present in many other class members. Other examples include the deoxystreptamine-containing agents
kanamycin,
tobramycin,
gentamicin, and
neomycin (see below).