Cephem

---

title: "Cephem" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["beta-lactam-antibiotics"] description: "Class of beta-lactam antibiotic" topic_path: "general/beta-lactam-antibiotics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephem" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Class of beta-lactam antibiotic ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Cephalosporin_core_structure.svg" caption="Core structure of the cephalosporins."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Cephamycin_core_structure.svg" caption="Core structure of the cephamycins."] ::

Cephems are a sub-group of β-lactam antibiotics including cephalosporins and cephamycins. It is one of the more common 4-membered ring Heterocyclic compounds in the clinic. Produced by actinomycetes, cephamycins were found to display antibacterial activity against a wide range of bacteria, including those resistant to penicillin and cephalosporins. The antimicrobial properties of cephem include the attachment to certain penicillin-binding proteins that are involved in the production of cell walls of bacteria.

References

References

1. (2000). "Cephems. Fifty Years of Continuous Research". The Journal of Antibiotics.
2. (December 2014). "Analysis of the structural diversity, substitution patterns, and frequency of nitrogen heterocycles among U.S. FDA approved pharmaceuticals". Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
3. (September 1972). "Cephamycins, a new family of beta-lactam antibiotics. I. Production by actinomycetes, including Streptomyces lactamdurans sp. n". Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
4. (2021-04-03). "Ab Initio Spectroscopic Investigation of Pharmacologically Relevant Chiral Molecules: The Cases of Avibactam, Cephems, and Idelalisib as Benchmarks for Antibiotics and Anticancer Drugs". Symmetry.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::