The Chemical Reactivity of β-Lactams, β-Sultams and β-Phospholactams

β-Lactam antibiotics display a range of biological activities. The origin of this diverse biological activity is discussed with reference to the chemical reactivity of the small ring system. The reactions of β-sultams and β-phospholactams with simple nucleophiles are reported and their potential as mechanism based inhibitors of bacterial and mammalian serine proteases is described.