Desciription

Ertapenem is a new carbapenem which has β-Lactam features and is regarded as having the most potent and the widest spectrum of antimicrobial activity, like imipenem and meropenem. It is effective against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive aerobes and anaerobes and is resistant to nearly all beta-lactamases, including extended-spectrum Beta-lactamases and AmpCs.

Ertapenem has a mechanism that suppresses synthesis of bacterial cell walls. The drug binds to penicillin binding proteins (PBPs), especially PBPs 2 and 3, on bacterial cell walls and inhibits the synthesis of peptidoglycan by interfering the final transpeptidation step.

This antibiotic is approved in the US and the EU as a parenteral infection treatment. It is used for intra-abdominal infection, complicated skin and soft-tissue infections,  community-acquired pneumonia and acute pelvic infection.

Applications

• Antibiotic

• Used to treat inflammatory diseases

References

• “Ertapenem”

• “Ertapenem, the first of a new group of carbapenems”

• “Ertapenem: review of a new carbapenem”

Not for human therapeutic use or for medicinal purposes. For research applications only.