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I was quite fascinated by the feature Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold? in this month's Wired magazine.

They explain that Penicillin is effective at killing bacteria because it interferes with the growth of bacterial cell walls.

How does Penicillin do that exactly? And why does it not dissolve human cells as well?

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    $\begingroup$ The simple answer is that human cells don't have cell walls. $\endgroup$
    – Mad Scientist
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 16:15
  • $\begingroup$ The reason why penicillin affects only bacteria and not Eukaryota cells has already been explain. It is true that Penicillin can also kill Gram-negative bacteria. One study I conducted, several Gram-negative bacteria have been removed from my cultures using Penicillin G Sodium Salt. I presume it is because the outer-membrane that protects Gram-negative bacteria is weak or thin. But maybe GWW can provide some references as I don't have them. $\endgroup$
    – JDGG
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 11:38

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Bacteria have a mesh-like structure surrounding their plasma membrane called a cell wall. The cell wall is made up of peptidoglycan polymers that form a rigid crystalline structure that helps protect the osmotic pressure of the bacterial cytoplasm.

Penicillin and other β-lactams work by inhibiting the final step of peptidoglycan synthesis, which prevents transpeptidation (crosslinking) of the peptidoglycan molecules. This leads to the death of the bacterium by osmotic pressure due to the loss of the cell wall.

This drug doesn't affect human cells because they lack a cell wall surrounding their plasma membrane.

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  • $\begingroup$ n.b. penicillin only affects gram positive bacteria. $\endgroup$
    – Rory M
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 18:09
  • $\begingroup$ @RoryM: That is not totally correct, penicillin does affect some gram negative bacteria but it is not very effective. There are other ß-lactams that do affect gram-negative bacteria such as Carbenicillin. $\endgroup$
    – GWW
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 18:15
  • $\begingroup$ I don't think that this is necessarily correct. The beta-lactams doesn't inhibit the synthesis but rather the reorganization of the peptidoglycans. The rigidity of the now static wall then prevents cell division. $\endgroup$
    – bobthejoe
    Commented Mar 27, 2012 at 23:14
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    $\begingroup$ @bobthejoe: I updated my answer to better explain it. Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – GWW
    Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 0:57

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