Other names: sulfa drugs, sulphonamides
Sulfonamides (sulphonamides) are a group of man-made (synthetic) medicines that contain the sulfonamide chemical group. They may also be called sulfa drugs.
Many people use the term sulfonamide imprecisely to refer only to antibiotics that have a sulfonamide functional group in their chemical structure. However, there are several non-antibiotic sulfonamides that have been developed by exploiting observations made during the clinical evaluation of the antibiotic sulfonamides. These are used for a range of conditions such as diabetes and pain relief.
Sulfanilamide was the first sulfonamide developed in 1906, although it was not used as an antimicrobial agent until the late 1930s. Sulfonamide antimicrobials are bacteriostatic (stop bacteria from reproducing but don't necessarily kill them) and work by interfering with the synthesis of folic acid in bacteria, which is essential for nucleic acid formation and ultimately DNA and R...