NCIt definition : The potassium salt of hetacillin, a semi-synthetic penicillin antibiotic with bactericidal
activity. Hetacillin is a prodrug that is converted to ampicillin via esterases. Ampicillin
binds to and inactivated penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) located on the inner membrane
of the bacterial cell wall, thereby preventing the cross-linkage of peptidoglycans,
which are critical components of the bacterial cell wall. This leads to an interruption
of the bacterial cell wall and causes bacterial cell lysis.;