Lincomycin Hydrochloride: A Lincosamide Antibiotic with Activity against Anaerobic Bacteria
Lincomycin hydrochloride is a lincosamide antibiotic isolated from the actinomyces
Streptomyces lincolnensis. A congener compound, clindamycin [
C2256], is derived from lincomycin to replace the 7-hydroxy group with a chlorine atom with inversion of chirality. Lincomycin has broad activity against anaerobic Gram-positive bacteria and anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria with a few exceptions, but less activity against most aerobic Gram-negative bacteria. Lincomycin interacts with the 50s subunit of bacterial ribosomes, and then it inhibits bacterial growth by inhibiting protein synthesis. Bacterial resistance to clindamycin and lincomycin may be caused by methylation of bacterial 23S ribosomal RNA.