Antibacterials Flashcards
What is the formula for the therapeutic index
Toxic concentration/effective concentration.
What does therapeutic index allow you to do
The therapeutic index of a drug allows you to find the optimal dosage which balances between efficacy without being unacceptably toxic to the patient.
What is the therapeutic window
The range of acceptable doses of a drug.
What is meant by “pharmacokinetics”
How the body handles a drug. It includes absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion.
What is the formula for the volume of distribution
Vd = total amount of drug in the body/drug blood plasma concentration.
What is Cmax when applied to pharmacokinetics
The maximum serum concentration that a drug achieves in a specified compartment or test area of the body after the drug has been administered.
What is Tmax when applied to pharmacokinetics
The term used to describe the time at which the Cmax is observed.
What is meant by the half life of a drug
The period of time required for the concentration or amount of drug in the body to be reduced by half.
What is meant by the term “pharmacodynamics”
The interaction between the antibiotic and the bacteria. (How long does the drug take to have an effect, what dose is required for the effect etc)
What is meant by bacteriostatic
The antibiotic stops the replication of the bacteria but does not kill it.
What is meant by bacteriocidal
The antibiotic kills the bacteria.
What are the four possible target sites of antibiotics on bacteria
- The cell wall
- The cell membrane
- Protein synthesis
- Nucleic acid synthesis (RNA,DNA, folic acid synthesis)
Why do cell wall synthesis inhibitors work
They are selectively toxic to bacteria because mammalian cells do not have a cell wall. The target is peptidoglycan which is not present in humans.
Do cell wall synthesis inhibitors tend to be bacteriocidal and bacteriostatic
Removal of bacterial cell walls destroys the bacterial maintenance of osmotic pressure causing water to flood into the cell so cell wall synthesis inhibitors tend to be bacteriocidal.
What does parenteral administration of drugs involve
Administration by a route other than by the alimentary canal (from mouth to anus) for example IV, subcutaneous, intramuscular, or intrasternal.
What must a drug be able to survive in order to be given orally
The acidic conditions of the stomach.
How are oral drugs able to resist the acidic conditions of the stomach
Either by -
- resistance to acid destruction
- may have functional groups added to form esters which are then cleaved by acids to form functional antibiotics.
Are oral drugs typically direct or indirect
Oral drugs are typically indirect as they have to go round the body in the circulation to reach the site of infection.
What are the general side effects of antibiotics
- Selective pressure and increased resistance
- Alteration of normal flora which can lead to diarrhoea or fungal superinfections
- May cause GI upset
- Drug interactions
What are the benefits of combination therapy
- Delay emergence of resistance
- Allow smaller doses of each agent (synergy)
What are the disadvantages of combination therapy
- Worse side effects
- Disturb normal gut flora
- Superinfection by resistant bacteria
- Additive toxicity.
Which two antibiotic combinations can cause QT prolongation and arrhythmias
- Vancomycin and gentamicin
- Quinolones and macrolides.
What is the most important thing when dealing with infection
Source control - remove catheters/drain abscesses etc.
Which types of antibiotics are cell wall synthesis inhibitors
- Beta lactams, for example penicillin
- Glycoproteins such as vancomycin
Which types of bacteria do cell wall synthesis inhibitors such as beta lactams and glycoproteins tend to target
Gram positive bacteria.
What tends to cause antibiotic resistance
Rare spontaneous mutations, typically independent of antibiotic usage which ends in selection of resistant bacteria due to death of non-resistant bacteria.
What are the locations of gene resistance
- Plasmid
- Chromosome
- Integrin
- Transposon
What is a plasmid
An extra chromosomal double stranded DNA that can self replicate and be transferred to other bacteria through conjugation through pilus.
What are transposons
“Jumping genes” - they can go between plasmids and chromosomes but cannot self replicate.
What is an integron
A genetic element within a transposon that takes resistant genes and inserts them into other DNA segments.
What are the four main mechanisms of resistance
- Target site alteration
- Reduced access
- Inactivation of the drug
- Metabolic bypass
How does target site alteration work as a mechanism of antibiotic resistance
The bacterium modifies the target site so the affinity of the drug for the site is reduced and the antibiotic cannot bind.
How does reduced access work as a mechanism of antibiotic resistance
The antibiotic is removed from the bacterial cell or the drug is no longer able to permeate the bacteria.
How does inactivation of the drug work as a mechanism of antibiotic resistance
An example is that beta lactamases are enzymes which can be produced by targeted bacteria. These deactivate the beta-lactam ring of the beta lactam antibiotic drug.
What is clavulanic acid and when is it used
Clavulanic acid is a drug that can be used alongside beta lactam agents to allow them to work by inactivating the beta lactamase enzymes produced by the bacteria.
How does metabolic bypass work as a mechanism for antibiotic resistance
Metabolic bypass happens through the production of additional targets. This can be done by the production of a drug resistant enzyme to bypass the inhibited metabolic stage or by hyperproduction of the antibiotic target.
What are four resistant control strategies
1) conservation - reduced use, source control.
2) prudent use - discourage topical application, give a stopping date
3) surveillance
4) infection control - hand disinfectant.
What are the 4 broad spectrum antibiotics associated with C.diff infection (the 4 Cs)
- Co-amoxiclav
- Clindamycin
- Ciprofloxacin and other quinolones
- Cephalosporins.
What are three examples of beta lactam drugs
Penicillin, Cephalosporin, Carbapenem.
What is penicillin used for
Group A strep, meingococci