12.7 Antibiotics and Other Medicines

Question 1

What are antibiotics?

Answer 1

• Antibiotics are chemicals that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria.
• They’re used by humans as drugs to treat bacterial infections.

Question 2

How does antibiotic resistance come about?

Answer 2

NATURAL SELECTION.

1) Genetic variation in bacteria population
2) Some bacteria naturally resistant to an antibiotic.
3) Able to survive better and reproduces more.
4) The allele for antibiotic resistance is passed onto lots of offspring.

Question 3

What is the problems associated with antibiotic resistance?

Answer 3

• Antibiotic resistance is increasing.

- Less able to treat potentially life-threatening bacterial infections.

Question 4

Give examples of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Answer 4

1) MRSA

2) Clostridium difficile

Question 5

What is MRSA?

Answer 5

Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

- Causes serious wound infections and is resistant to several antibiotics, including meticillin

Question 6

What is clostridium difficile?

Answer 6

• Infects digestive system, causing problems in people already treated with antibiotics.
• Harmless bacteria present in digestive system killed by antibiotics.
• Produces a toxin which causes severe diarrhoea, fever and cramps.

Question 7

How can we prevent antibiotic resistance?

Answer 7

• Doctors encouraged to reduce use of antibiotics

- Patients advised to follow full course of antibiotics until infection fully cleared

Question 8

What are the sources of medicines?

Answer 8

• Plants
• Animals
• Microorganisms

Question 9

How can possible sources of drugs be protected?

Answer 9

By maintaining the biodiversity on Earth

Question 10

What is personalised medicine?

Answer 10

Personalised medicine is a combination of drugs that work with your individual combination of genetics and disease.

• In summary: medicines tailored to an individuals DNA.
• If doctors have your genetic information, they can use it to predict how you will respond to different drugs and only prescribe the ones that will be most effective for you.

Question 11

What is synthetic biology?

Answer 11

Involves using technology such as genetic engineering.

- E.g can develop populations to bacteria to produce drugs that would be too rare or expensive.