Antimicrobials and Vaccination

Question 1

What are antimicrobials?

Answer 1

Compounds that can either directly kill or slow the growth of microbes
Can be synthetic or made by living organisms
Bacteria - antibiotic
Viruses - antifungal
Fungi - antifungal or antimycotic
Parasites - antiparasitic, antiprotozoal, ant-malarial, anti-helminthic

Question 2

Antibiotics

Answer 2

Target = bacteria
100+ different antibiotics approved for human use 
Can be classified according to their mechanism of action, chemical structure or spectrum of activity:
-Block bacterial cell wall synthesis
-Impair bacterial cell membranes
-Impair bacterial metabolism
-Impair bacterial nucleic acid synthesis
-Impair bacterial protein translation

Question 3

Bacteriostatic vs Bacteriocidal

Answer 3

Bacteriostatic = the agent prevents the growth of bacteria
Bacteriocidal = the agent kills the bacteria

Question 4

Antibiotics that target the cell wall = Beta-lactam antibiotics
-List the three examples

Answer 4

1. Penicilins “-icillin”
2. Cepalosporins (“cef- or ceph-“
3. Carbapenems “-penem”)