Arbekacin, trade name Habekacin, is an aminoglycoside antibiotic derived from dibekacin that inhibits bacterial protein synthesis. Arbekacin is prescribed to patients with sepsis and pneumonia resulting from MRSA. Arbekacin binds the bacterial 50S and 30S ribosomal subunit proteins and prevents the formation of the initiation complex with messenger RNA. More specifically, Arbekacin 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. This causes interference of the initiation complex, misreading of mRNA so that incorrect amino acids are inserted into the polypeptide leading to nonfunctional or toxic peptides, and the breakup of polysomes into nonfunctional monosomes. Arbekacin is effective at treating Gram-positive bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis and Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Arbekacin Pathway References