Author(s)

Brygida Kwiatkowska, Maria Maslinska, Malgorzata Przygodzka, Joanna Dmowska-Chalaba, Justyna Dabrowska, Katarzyna Sikorska-Siudek

Early Arthritis Clinic, Institute of Rheumatology, Warsaw, Poland.

Since the discovery of penicillin by Fleming in 1928, the knowledge of the antibiotics’ spectrum and mechanism of action has been steadily increasing. Antibiotics became an effective tool in the fight against many pathogens, changing the prognosis of outcome for many serious diseases. It is already known that antibiotics not only have the antibacterial activity, but many of them—e.g. macrolides, sulphonamides and tetracyclines—have immunomodulating effect, affecting functions of lymphocytes, macrophages and costimulatory molecules, macrophage migration and phagocytosis, as well as proinflammatory cytokine secretion. The expanding knowledge of the effects of antibiotics on the immune system has brought with it new applications of antibiotics in organ transplantation, invasive cardiology and treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or asthma.

Immunomodulatory; Macrolides; Tetracyclines; Sulphonamides

Kwiatkowska, B. , Maslinska, M. , Przygodzka, M. , Dmowska-Chalaba, J. , Dabrowska, J. and Sikorska-Siudek, K. (2013) Immune system as a new therapeutic target for antibiotics. Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology, 4, 91-101. doi: 10.4236/abb.2013.44A013.