Antimicrobials Flashcards
What can antimicrobials be classified into?
Antibacterials
Antifungals
Antivirals
Antiprotozoals
How can antibacterials be classified?
Bactericidal or bacteriostatic
Broad or narrow
Target site
Chemical structure
What do bactericidal antibacterials do?
Kill bacteria
What do bacteriostatic antibacterials do?
Mainly inhibit
What does the target site of an antibacterial depend on?
The mechanism of action
What are the ideal features of an antimicrobial agent?
Selectively toxic Few adverse effects Reach site of infection Oral and IV formulation Long-half life No interference with other drugs
Why should an antimicrobial be selectively toxic?
So it is minimally toxic
Why should an antimicrobial have a long half life?
Allows for infrequent dosing
What are the classes of mechanism of action of antibacterials?
Affect cell wall synthesis
Affect protein synthesis
Affect cell membrane function
Affect nucleic acid synthesis
Give two examples of classes of antimicrobials that affect cell wall synthesis
Beta-lactams
Glycopeptides
Give three examples of classes of antimicrobials that affect protein synthesis
Tetracyclines
Aminoglycosides
Macrolides
Give an example of a class of antimicrobial that affects cell membrane function?
Polymixins
Give an example of a polymixin
Colistin
Give an example of a class of antimicrobial that affects nucleic acid synthesis
Quinolones
Give two examples of quinolones
Trimethoprim
Rifampicin
What are the most important classes of antibacterials?
Those that affect cell wall synthesis and those that interfere with protein synthesis
What class of antibacterial is penicillin?
Beta-lactam
What is penicillin binding protein?
A bacterial protein that physiologically cross-links the cell walls in bacteria
What is the mechanism of action of penicillin?
It binds to penicillin binding protein and inhibits it from cross-link the cell wall
What class of antimicrobial is vancomycin?
Glycopeptide
What is the mechanism of action of vancomycin?
It sits on the cross-links of the forming cell wall and stops penicillin binding protein from attaching, preventing cross-links from being attached to each other by the cell wall cross-linking enzyme
What class of antimicrobial are fluoroquinolones?
Quinolone
What is the mechanism of action of fluoroquinolones?
Interferes with the action of DNA gyrase during bacterial growth
What does DNA gyrase do?
Physiologically catalyses the supercoiling of DNA
How do fluoroquinolones interfere with the action of DNA gyrase?
Binds to both the enzyme and DNA to form a ternary (three molecule) complex, inhibiting the rejoining step and thus causes cell death
What are the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance?
Drug inactivating enzymes
Altered target
Altered uptake
Give two examples of antimicrobials affected by drug inactivating enzymes
Beta-lactamases
Aminoglycosides
What happens in the altered target mechanism of antimicrobial resistance?
Target enzyme has a lowered affinity for antibacterial
Give three examples of antimicrobials affected by the altered target mechanism of resistance
Methicillin
Macrolides
Trimethoprim
What is caused by antibiotic resistance to methicillin?
MRSA
How can altered uptake be achieved in antibiotic resistance?
Decreased permeability
Increased efflux
Give an example of an antimicrobial affected by the decreased permeability mechanism of resistance
Beta-lactams
Give an example of an antimicrobial affected by the increased efflux mechanism of resistance
Tetracyclines
How can antibiotic resistance be genetically obtained?
Chromosomal gene mutation
Horizontal gene transfer
How does a chromosomal gene mutation result in antimicrobial resistance?
A chromosome mutates to contain a gene that confers resistance.
An antibiotic is then applied and the resistant gene is selected for, as only the resistant bacteria will survive.
The surviving bacteria can then replicate to produce large numbers of bacteria the now carry the mutated resistance gene
What can antibiotic resistance genes be carried on?
Chromosomes
Plasmids
Transposons
How can antibiotic resistance genes be transferred?
Conjugation
Transduction
Transformation
How does antimicrobial resistance transfer by conjugation?
Resistant cell carries the gene on a plasmid or transposon that passes it on to another cell via pili
How does antimicrobial resistance transfer by transduction?
Resistant cell is infected by bacteriophage virus.
During replication of bacteriophages within resistant cell, bacterial DNA containing resistant gene is packaged into one of the phages
The bacteriophage then goes on to transfer the resistant gene to a non-resistant cell that incorporates it into its genes via recombination
How does antimicrobial resistance transfer by transformation?
Resistant cell carries the gene on a chromosome of plasmid
The resistant cell dies, and releases its DNA
The free DNA is picked up by the competent non-resistant cell, that has now acquired resistance
What happens once antimicrobial resistant is acquired by another cell?
It can go on to replicate so that it’s off-spring now possess the resistance gene
How can antibiotic activity be measured?
Disc sensitivity tests
Minimum inhibitory concentration
What happens in disc sensitivity tests?
Discs of antimicrobials are placed in a petri-dish containing clear agar, where a culture of bacteria is to be grown
How are the results of a disc sensitivity test interpreted?
The size of the clear agar around each disc correlates with its effectiveness
What happens in a minimum inhibitory concentration test?
There are two control test tubes, one with no antibacterials and bacteria, and one with no antibacterials and no bacteria.
The concentration of antibacterial is halved each test tube, and observe to see when no bacterial growth is observed- when the broth is not turbid
What are the types of beta-lactams?
Penicillins
Cephalosporins
Carbapenums
Monobactams
Give 5 examples of penicillins
Benzylpenicillin Amoxicillin Flucloxacillin Co-amoxiclav Tazocin
What is co-amoxiclav?
Amox and clavulanate