Kanamycin

Kanamycin sulfate ® is an aminoglycoside antibiotic, available in both oral and intravenous forms, and used to treat a wide variety of infections. Kanamycin is isolated from Streptomyces kanamyceticus.^{[citation needed]}

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Pharmacology

Kanamycin works by affecting the 30S ribosomal subunit and causing a frameshift mutation or it prevents the translation of RNA. This means that instead of a codon CAT (for example in sequence CATG), a codon ATG is read by aminoacyl tRNA (aa-tRNA). Aminoacyl tRNA is consequently carrying a different amino acid, because the anticodon on the aa-tRNA is different. The protein needed cannot be synthesized: depending on the site and severity of the frame shift, either a completely different protein is synthesized, or a protein similar to the one needed is synthesized, but is folded incorrectly. A bacterium is destroyed because it cannot produce any of its proteins correctly.^{[citation needed]}

Because of over-usage of antibiotics many bacteria have developed a resistance against kanamycin, and, consequently, it is not used much anymore.^{[citation needed]}

Side effects

Common side effects include changes in hearing (either hearing loss or ringing in the ears), toxicity to kidneys, and allergic reactions to the drug.^{[citation needed]}

Use in Research

Genes encoding kanamycin resistance are commonly used as selectable markers in molecular biology.^{[citation needed]}