A urinary tract infection, or UTI, occurs when bacteria colonize the urinary tract. The bacteria originate from either the kidney or the urethra, whereby they migrate to the urinary tract and begin to proliferate. After medical professionals have diagnosed and tested for a urinary tract infection, the treatment is almost always a schedule of antibiotics.
Amoxicillin
Amoxicillin is a penicillin derivative and works in a similar manner. Like penicillin, amoxicillin is a beta-lactam antibiotic. Beta-lactam antibiotics disrupt enzymes that synthesize the bacterial cell wall. This effectively kills living bacteria and disrupts their ability to multiply. Some bacteria have evolved enzymes that inhibit amoxicillin; in these cases, clavulanic acid is included to help inhibit the anti-amoxicillin enzymes.
Ciprofloxacin
Another popular UTI antibiotic is ciprofloxacin and its chemical relatives. Ciprofloxacin is a member of the quinolone antibiotic family. These are synthetic antibiotics that inhibit a bacterial enzyme called gyrases. Bacterial chromosomes are large circles that remain tightly wound. When bacteria multiply, this chromosome is unwound and copied. Once division is complete, gyrases wind the chromosome back up into a tight coil. Ciprofloxacin inhibits gyrases, preventing them from winding the chromosome back up and effectively preventing bacteria from proliferating.
Co-trimoxazole
Co-trimoxazole is an antibiotic that contains two ingredients: trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole. These two chemicals work together to kill bacteria. Similar to ciprofloxacin, co-trimoxazole attacks bacterial DNA, but at a very different stage. Co-trimoxazole works by inhibiting the enzymes responsible for manufacturing the building blocks of DNA. Without these essential building blocks, bacteria do not have enough raw materials to copy their chromosome while dividing. This halts division or introduces fatal errors into the chromosomes.
