Respiratory tract antimicrobial effects

For example, sol-gel immobilised bioactive liquids such as cineol, camphor, menthol, evening primrose and perilla oil used to functionalise textiles afford either skin-friendly textiles with antimicrobial and antiallergic effects due to immobilised natural oils or textiles for therapeutic treatment of the respiratory tract by means of immobilised mixtures of high volatility natural agents such as eucalyptol, camphor and menthol.27... 

Very little published data exist in the English literature on the clinical use of midecamycin, a naturally occurring macrolide with a spectrum of antimicrobial activities similar to those of other 16-membered macrolides. Administered twice a day, this drug is effective for the treatment of infections in the oral cavity [340], upper and lower respiratory tracts [341, 342], and SST [314]. Clinical use of this macrolide is limited mainly to Japan and Europe. 

Erythromycin is a macrolide antibiotic widely used for the treatment of upper and lower respiratory tract infections. Recent reports further showed that EM and its analogues are effective for the treatment of chronic airway diseases such as DPB, bronchial asthma, and chronic sinusitis [5, 15, 32]. This effectiveness is considered to be apart from their antimicrobial actions, because they are effective at half of the recommended dosage and even in cases without concomitant infection. Its precise mechanisms, however, remain unclear. Several cytokines including IL-1, TNF-a, and IL-8 have been reported to be elevated in HALF from patients with such airway inflammatory diseases (Table II), and to be decreased... 

Oleandomycin, a 14-membered ring macrolide antibiotic, was isolated in 1956 from fermentation broths of Streptomyces antibioticus [360]. Some years later, oleandomycin was assigned the structure 340 on the basis of its chemical degradation [361]. Oleandomycin is effective, but less potently, against the same spectrum of bacteria as erythromycin, namely Gram-positive bacteria such as staphylococci, streptococci, and pneumococci. The antimicrobial activity of oleandomycin, when combined with tetracycline, is potentiated. In fact, in such a combination it is sold as an antibacterial agent for upper and lower respiratory tract infection. 

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