Interaction of neomycin with human erythrocytes.

This study has been undertaken to verify if neomycin, known to be toxic because it interacts with membrane-bound phosphatidylinositol-4,5-biphosphate, may lead to an extensive perturbation of the membrane organization of human erythrocytes. By comparison, the effects induced by a non toxic aminocyclitol antibacterial agent as spectinomycin were examined. Our data exclude extended alterations of the membrane and hence large structural changes of the whole cell for both the drugs probably as a consequence of the extreme difficulty of penetration because of their selective hydrophilic features. However, only neomycin seems to present a binding on negatively charged regions of erythrocyte membranes, that could be responsible of its remarkable toxicity.