An antibiotic from the tetracycline family that kills bacteria by preventing them from making proteins they need to survive.
From chloro- (chlorine) + tetracycline; discovered in 1948 from soil bacteria (Streptomyces aureofaciens), it was the first tetracycline antibiotic isolated, named for its four-ring structure.
Chlortetracycline was nicknamed 'Aureomycin' and launched the entire tetracycline class of antibiotics that revolutionized medicine in the 1950s, but overuse has now made many bacteria resistant to it—a cautionary tale about antibiotic abuse.
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