Antibotics [module 4] Flashcards
Antibiotics
Chemical substance that inhibit or kill bacterial cells with little or no harm to human tissue
Aim of antibiotics
To aid the body’s immune system with fighting a Bacterial infection
selective toxicity
Antibiotics interfere with the metabolism of the bacteria without affecting the metabolism of human cells
2 ways antibiotics are described as
- bactericidal - they kill
- bacteriostatic - they inhibit growth processes
They target prokaryotic features but can affect both pathogenic and mutualistic bacteria living on or in the body
Examples of antibiotics
Penicillin - inhibit synthesis of bacterial cell wall
Polymixin - affects cell surface membrane function
Penicillin
- first widely used effective safe antibiotic capable of curing bacterial disease
- comes from mould discovered by sir Alexander Fleming In 1928 when he found it growing on his staphylococcus spp. cultures
- Fleming saw what the mould did to his bacteria but could not extract enough to test its potential
- often used for relatively minor infections where the immune system of the patient would deal with the infection with no serious difficulty
- antibiotics are becoming less effective in the treatment of bacterial diseases
Pharmocogenetics
Personalised medicine where you are studying the relationship between an individuals genetic makeup and drug interactions
What occurs in pharmacogenetics ?
Analysing the genome of both patient and pathogen to determine treatment