Pharmaceutical Importance of the Major Categories Of Microorganisms

Pharmaceutical Relevance
Type of organism

Contamination or
spoilage of raw
materials
and medicines

Pathogens

Resistance to
antibiotics and
biocides

Viruses

Prions

Gram-negative

Gram-positive

Resistance to
sterilizing
agents
and processes

Used in the
manufacture of
therapeutic
agents

Implications
Because of their lack of intrinsic metabolism viruses
are not susceptible to antibiotics and the number of
effective synthetic antiviral drugs is limited so viral
infections are among the most serious and difficult
to cure. They have no synthetic capabilities that can
be exploited in medicine manufacture.
Prions are hard to destroy by heat, radiation or toxic
chemicals, they have their extreme resistance to
lethal agents so for this reason, they can easily
withstand sterilizing conditions so they cause
product spoilage, and they have no synthetic
capabilities that can be exploited in medicine
manufacture.

Bacteria
+

+ (spores)

Many of the medically and pharmaceutically

important bacteria are pathogens as a result of their
ability to resist the activity of antibiotics and
biocides. The role of the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) as
a permeability barrier in Gram-negative bacteria
reduced biocide efficacy. The ability of bacteria to
grow on diverse substrates ensures that their
potential as agents of spoilage in manufactured
medicines and raw materials is well recognized.
The ability to survive not only in dry conditions but
in other adverse environments (heat, radiation,
toxic chemicals) is well exemplied by bacterial
spores. The ability of bacteria to grow on diverse
substrates ensures that their potential as agents of

Mycobacteria

Streptomycetes

Chlamydia

Rickettsia

Mycoplasma

spoilage in manufactured medicines and raw

materials is well recognized. Many of the medically
and pharmaceutically important bacteria are
pathogens as a result of their ability to resist the
activity of antibiotics and biocides.
Vegetative bacteria such as mycobacteria have an
intrinsic resistance mechanism to biocides referred
to as "permeability barrier". The permeability
barrier limits the amount of a biocide that enters the
cell, thus decreasing the effective biocide
concentration.
The
presence
of
mycoylacylarabinogalactan layer accounts for the
impermeability to many antimicrobials .
A variety of bacteria are exploited commercially in
the manufacture of other medicines. The majority of
the other categories of clinically important
antibiotics are produced by streptomycetes.
Chloramphenicol has an especially broad spectrum
of activity against Chlamydia.
Rickettsia is not resistant to antibiotics. Doxycycline
is the drug of choice, it is preferred over other
tetracyclines for treatment of rickettsial infections.
Chloramphenicol may be used as an alternative.
Chloramphenicol antibiotic has an especially broad
spectrum of activity against mycoplasma.

Fungi
Yeasts

Moulds

Yeast can be genetically engineered to produce

artemisinic acid, a precursor to the best malaria
treatments. Yeast are involved in the industrial
processing of more than 10 of the 20 most profitable
products used in human medicine. Two anticholesterol statins, the antibiotic penicillin and the
immunosuppressant cyclosporin A are among the
top 10.
Like bacteria, fungi are able to form spores that
survive drying, so they too arise commonly as
contaminants of manufactured medicines. However,

Protozoa

the degree of resistance presented by the spores is

usually less than that exhibited by bacteria, and so
fungi do not represent a sterilization problem. Fungi
do not generally create a signicant infection hazard
either. Molds are used in the manufacture of
therapeutic agents, Alexander Fleming's accidental
discovery of the antibiotic penicillin involved
a Penicillium mold called Penicillium notatum.
Protozoa are of signicance largely owing to the
pathogenic potential of a few species. Because
protozoa do not possess cell walls they do not
survive drying well (unless in the form of cysts), so
they are not a problem in the manufacturing
environment and even the encysted forms do not
display resistance to sterilizing processes. It should
be noted that protozoal infections are not currently
a major problem to human health in temperate
climates, although they are more troublesome in
veterinary medicine and in the tropics.