Clindamycin inhibits bacterial protein synthesis by binding to 23S RNA of the 50S subunit of the bacterial ribosome. It impedes both the assembly of the ribosome and the translation process. The molecular mechanism through which this occurs is thought to be due to clindamycin's three-dimensional structure, which closely resembles the 3'-ends of L-Pro-Met-tRNA and deacylated-tRNA during the peptide elongation cycle – in acting as a structural analog of these tRNA molecules, clindamycin impairs peptide chain initiation and may stimulate dissociation of peptidyl-tRNA from bacterial ribosomes