Antibiotics Flashcards
What is meant by selective toxicity?
Using drugs to kill an invading species without damage to the host
What can be used for selective toxicity?
- Anticancer
- Antiviral
- Antiprotozoal
- Antibacterial (looking at this in this module)
Do selectively toxic compounds work in the same way as disinfectants and sterilising agents?
This is NOT the same. As disinfectants and sterilising agents kill everything, where as selective toxic things do not
Can antibacterials be selectively toxic to different organisms?
Yes
Whats required for something to be selectively toxic?
To be selective, we need to find molecular mechanisms that are important in the pathogen, but are not present (or are not important) in the host (look for difference sin metabolic pathways between bacteria and host)
Are antibiotics naturally occuring?
Yes, they are agents made by one microorganism that kill another
Give two examples of naturally occuring antibiotics. How has this been changed/ adapted over the years?
Penicillin and streptomycin
Over the years they have become more synthetic or semi-synthetic as chemists take precursors of them and then add in characteristics that they want to see
What did the scientist Ehrlich hypothesise?
- For a series of related compounds toxicity did not parallel curative action (reduce toxicity and improve curative action)
Inactive in vitro:
- Reduced to the As(III) form e.g. highly toxic drug used to be used to treat syphilis (don’t need to know just for history)
What were Ehrlich’s concepts?
- Drugs contain a haptophore for binding and a toxophore for killing (not terms that we use now but principles are important)
- Drugs could be metabolically activated
- Need to not actually kill the bacteria
- Structure activity relationship
Whats the difference between Bactericidal and Bacteriostatic antibiotics?
Provide an example for each
Bactericidal- kill invading organism e.g., penicillin
Bacteriostatic- stopping growth of bacteria so body eliminates invading organism e.g. sulphonamide
Tell me whats meant by the structure activity relationship (S.A.R)?
Structure Activity Relationship (S.A.R.)- should be able to relate biological activity to structure of a compound
What are the main sites of antibiotic action?
- Metabolism (antimetabolites)
- Cell wall synthesis (penicillin is the best-known example for this category)
- Protein synthesis (eukaryotic vs prokaryotic and different inhibitors)
- Nucleic Acid synthesis (packaging and synthesis is different with eukaryotes and prokaryotes)
Prontosil is an antibacterial drug, what was metabolised from it that is more widely used now?
Draw the structure for it
In a continuation of Ehrlich’s approach, another product of the dye industry, prontosil, was introduced as an antibacterial agent by Gerhard Domagk in 1935. This compound was metabolized to sulphonamide, a fact which when recognized, led to the development of many new sulpha drugs.
How do sulphonamides work?
Bacteriostatic
- Why a slow stopping of growth of bacteria when antibiotic added: not a penetration problem as gets in quickly, drug depletes stores of something in the bacteria which stops new synthesis of that. As product is used up, the bacteria stop growing
- Bacteriostatic antibiotics
Tell me about each of the groups on the sulphonamides structure…
Sulphonamide shows similar isosterism to para-amino benzoic acid (pAB), draw the structures for each and what group is different/
What reaction is para-aminobenzoic acid (pAB) an important initiator of and why is this reaction important in regards to the final product produced?
The final product is tetrahydrofolate
Tetrahydrofolate (THF) or tetrahydrofolic acid is a derivative of Vitamin B9 (folic acid or pteroyl-L-glutamic acid), a water-soluble vitamin that serves as a coenzyme for metabolic reactions involving amino acids and nucleic acids.
Draw the cascade reaction for the production of tetrahydrofolate from para-aminobenzoic acid?
Whats the problem with the tetrahydrofolate reaction pathway?
Sulphonamide shows isosterism with pAB this means
Sulphonamides compete with pAB for the synthesis of dihydropteroic acid
However, this leads to the generation of a false product which can’t be used for further synthesis of folate
What are the uses of folic acid?
“one carbon metabolism” – used as a factor in adding methyl groups. Essential for the synthesis of RNA, DNA, amino acids….
If the metabolism is stopped then the synthesis of folic acid is stopped as a consequence
If folic acid synthesis is stopped, why does this kill bacteria but not mammals?
- We cannot make folic acid – it is an essential part of our diet
- Bacteria synthesise their own folic acid, and do not have mechanisms for absorbing it (can’t cross their membranes or cell walls by diffusion of active transport)
Sulphonamide derivatives…
The seach for other antimetabolites has been less successful. Why do sulphonamides work so well?
- They generate a false product (exhausting the supply of the pteridine precursor) – so compounds before the block do not build up and compete. (generates an irreversible step which generates a false product)
- Bacteria have no uptake mechanisms for the product.
- We do not synthesise folate – though it is an essential part of our diet. pAB is not present in our cells.
What generally blocks sulphonamides actions?
Their action is blocked by the final products of folate metabolism – serine, thymine etc.
Sulphonamide is described as being bacteriostatic, but when can it become bactericidal?
They are usually bacteriostatic (stop it growing as seen in growth curve above) – but become bactericidal in the absence of thymine “thymineless death”
What is broken down to release pAB?
Procaine (a local anaesthetic)
Why are sulphonamides less widely used now a days and give examples to support this?
They are less widely used as a result of resistance (due to increased pAB level, increased uptake of folate, reduced drug uptake, or drug metabolism due to point mutations of other resistance mechanisms).
Give some examples of what sulphonamides are used to treat?
- Bacterial meningitis
- UTIs
- bronchitis
- eye infections
- pneumonia
- ear infections
- severe burns
- traveler’s diarrhea
- and other conditions
Do sulphonamides work against both gram +ve and -ve bacteria?
yes
Give examples of two other drugs that act by the same mechanism as sulphonamide
Give their structure
Tell me about procaines involvment in the before mentioned reaction?
- procaine can overcome the actions of sulphonamides (esterase that breaks the procaine down which competes with sulphonamide and increases the cell stores of pAB and then more likely to make the folic acid)
- procaine doesn’t last very long as is a short acting anaesthetic
- procaine competes with the action of sulphonamide
Whats another drug that targets the synthesis of folate?
- dHFR is the enzyme involved in the synthesis of folate
- methotrexate inhibits dHFR which results in less folate being produced
- methotrexate is a non-selective drug that inhibits that pathway covered above of folic acid
is dHFR found in eukaryotes and prokaryotes?
dHFR is our enzyme and also bacterial (but protein structure of us and in bacteria isn’t the same even though it has the same action)
Tell me about the drug Trimethoprim?
- Used in combination with suphamethoxazole (1:20) as “septrin”. Inhibiting two points on the same pathway
- Inhibitor of dHFR
- Useful antibiotic
Tell me about the drug Pyrimethamine ?
Inhibitors of the folate pathway and the knock on effects it can have
Is penicillin bactericidal or bacteriostatic?
Bactericidal
What is Septrin a mixture of?
Septrin is a mixture of sulphonamide with trimethoprim
Who discovered penicillin?
Alexander Flemming
Tell me 4 things that penicillin is involved in?
- Bactericidal
- Prevents cell wall synthesis
- Cell lysis
- In isotonic media, protoplasts are generated
What are the two types of bacteria?
Gram positive
Gram negative
Label this Gram +ve and -ve bacteria
Outline of the bacterial cell wall synthesis process
Peptidoglycan is the macromolecule found in bacterial cell wall. What polymers does it contain and tell me about its cross links
Whats the first stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis
Whats the second stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis ?
Whats the third stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis?
Whats the fourth stage o bacterial cell wall synthesis?
Whats the fifth stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis?
Whats the sixth stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis?
Whats the seventh stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis?
Whats the eigth stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis?
What is this blocked by?
Transfer of the disaccharide unit to the existing cell wall (releasing C55-P-P)
Blocked by
- Vancomycin
- Ristocetin