Neomycin is a member of the aminoglycoside family of antibiotics. As an aminoglycoside, neomycin can effectively against a wide variety of pathogenic bacteria such as E.coli, Citrobacter sp., etc. Neomycin can also effectively against Hemophilus influenzae, Salmonella sp. and others in vitro. However, netilmicin are ineffective against anaerobic bacteria, fungi and viruses. Neomycin binds irreversibly to the bacterial 30S ribosomal subunit protein and 16S rRNA and prevents the formation of the initiation complex with messenger RNA. More specifically, neomycin binds four nucleotides of the 16S rRNA and a single amino acid of protein S12. This interferes with the decoding site in the vicinity of nucleotide 1400 in 16S rRNA of the 30S subunit. This region interacts with the wobble base of the anticodon of tRNA. Binding of netilmicin can cause misreading of mRNA which result in insertion of incorrect amino acids to polypeptide. This lead to nonfunctional or toxic peptides of protein complex.

Neomycin Pathway References