A term used to describe a chemical structure of a compound containing a large lactone ring, usually with a 14 or 16-membered ring structure. The prototypical compounds within the macrolide class are the erythromycin-based antibiotics; however, many compounds with this chemical structure are being developed for other diseases.

A group of often glycosylated macrocyclic compounds formed by chain extension of multiple PROPIONATES cyclized into a large (typically 12, 14, or 16)-membered lactone. Macrolides belong to the POLYKETIDES class of natural products, and many members exhibit ANTIBIOTIC properties.

Macrolides are antibiotics that are primarily bacteriostatic; by binding to the 50S subunit of the ribosome, they inhibit bacterial protein synthesis.

Macrolide, class of antibiotics characterized by their large lactone ring structures and by their growth-inhibiting (bacteriostatic) effects on bacteria. The macrolides were first discovered in the 1950s, when scientists isolated erythromycin from the soil bacterium Streptomyces erythraeus. In the...