Carbapenemases

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Enzymes produced by certain bacteria that break down carbapenem antibiotics, rendering them ineffective; proteins that confer resistance to carbapenem drugs; bacterial enzymes capable of hydrolyzing a broad range of beta-lactam antibiotics including carbapenems
2. Specialized enzymes found in some bacteria that deactivate carbapenem antibiotics by hydrolyzing their beta-lactam ring, leading to antibiotic resistance; proteins responsible for breaking down carbapenem drugs; bacterial mechanisms that neutralize the efficacy of carbapenem antibiotics
3. Biological catalysts secreted by bacteria that inactivate carbapenem antibiotics through hydrolysis, contributing to multidrug resistance; enzymes that cleave carbapenem rings; bacterial proteins that undermine carbapenem effectiveness in antimicrobial therapy

Etymology: Carbapenemases are enzymes that break down carbapenems, a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics often kept in reserve for the most serious bacterial infections. The word is a plural, so it refers to more than one such enzyme. Its base, "carbapenemase", is built from "carbapenem" plus the suffix "-ase", the standard ending chemists use for enzymes, as in "lactase" and "protease". The first part, "carbapenem", names the antibiotic family itself. Its name comes from its chemical structure: a carbon-based ring system related to penicillins but with a different arrangement of atoms, so "carba-" reflects the carbon atom placed where penicillin has sulfur, and "-penem" marks its penicillin-like ring. The enzyme name simply attaches the enzyme suffix to this antibiotic name, so anyone familiar with the chemistry can read the word's meaning directly from its parts: an enzyme that acts on carbapenems.

Synonyms: beta-lactamases, carbapenem-hydrolyzing enzymes