Antibiotics Flashcards
1
Q
Define “antibiotic”
A
Chemicals killing/inhibiting the growth of pathogens
2
Q
What are the 2 types of antibiotic?
A
- Bacteriostatic
- Bacteriocidal
3
Q
What do bacteriocidal antibiotics do?
A
Kill bacteria
4
Q
How do bacteriocidal antibiotics kill bacteria? 3
A
- Inhibit enzymes needed to make chemical bonds in bacterial cell walls - causing a weak wall
- Can’t take pressure of osmosis: cell lysis
- Also causes cell membrane disruption by changing permeability of it - causing cell lysis
5
Q
What do bacteriostatic antibiotics do?
A
- Prevent bacteria reproducing
- Immune system then destroys bacteria
6
Q
How do bacteriostatic bacteria prevent bacteria reproducing? 6
A
- Bind to bacterial ribosomes
- So no translation
- Can’t make proteins
- Can’t make enzymes
- Can’t carry out metabolic processes
- No cell division/growth
7
Q
Why do antibiotics only work on bacteria?
A
Antibiotics designed to target bacterial cells by targeting specific differences between eukaryotic cells and prokaryotic cells
8
Q
What differences in bacteria do antibiotics target?
A
- Peptidoglycan cell walls [inhibit cell wall formation]
- Smaller ribosomes [so inhibit these ribosomes]
- Different enzymes
9
Q
Why don’t antibiotics work on viruses?
A
Viruses don’t have their own enzymes and ribosomes so antibiotics can’t target/affect these
