Tobramycin is an antibiotic that is commonly used to treat bacterial infections such as cystic fibrosis-associated bacterial, lower respiratory tract, urinary tract, eye, skin, and bone infections. This drug is a part of the aminoglycoside antibiotics family. It can be administered via inhalation, injection (intravenously or intramuscular), or even via topical cream. Tobramycin acts by binding to bacterial membranes causing displacement of divalent cations and increasing membrane permeability allowing entry into the bacterial cell. Once inside the bacterial cell, tobramycin then targets the bacterial 30S ribosome and binds to it, halting protein synthesis. It binds to the site where the normal base pairing of codon and anti-codon takes place as well as adding amino acids to the growing polypeptide chain, with this blocked it leads to termination of the chain and production of non-functional proteins. The adverse effects of tobramycin are not well known therefore if a patient is experiencing overdose hemodialysis should be performed to clear the excess of tobramycin as they are at risk of nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity, neuromuscular blockade, respiratory paralysis, and/or respiratory failure.

Tobramycin Pathway (new) References