A 16-year-old female patient presents with complaints of a non-productive cough, low grade fever, and a headache. The physician also notes a non-purulent otitis media. She is treated with an antibiotic that inhibits the translocation of the growing peptide chain along the mRNA. The antibiotic the patient was given was?

This patient was infected with M. pneumoniae, the most common cause of pneumonia in young adults. The disorder is usually characterized by a non-productive cough, low-grade fever, and a headache as well as non-purulent otitis media or bullous myringitis in about 20% of the patients. It is usually treated with erythromycin, azithromycin, tetracyclines, or fluoroquinolones. Erythromycin acts to inhibit the translocation step of ribosomal protein synthesis. Chloramphenicol inhibits ribosomal peptidyl transferase in prokaryotes. Cycloheximide inhibits ribosomal peptidyl transferase in eukaryotes. Puromycin acts to inhibit elongation by binding to the "A" site and prematurely terminating chain growth in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes.