Authors: Jarlier Vincent Nikaido Hiroshi
Publish Date: 1994/10/01
Volume: 123, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 11-18
Abstract
Mycobacteria show a high degree of intrinsic resistance to most antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents The low permeability of the mycobacterial cell wall with its unusual structure is now known to be a major factor in this resistance Thus hydrophilic agents cross the cell wall slowly because the myobacterial porin is inefficient in allowing the permeation of solutes and exists in low concentration Lipophilic agents are presumably slowed down by the lipid bilayer which is of unusually low fluidity and abnormal thickness Nevertheless the cell wall barrier alone cannot produce significant levels of drug resistance which requires synergistic contribution from a second factor such as the enzymatic inactivation of drugs
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